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"title": "Murder in the Belfry: How the Story of Theodore Durrant Captivated Victorian San Francisco",
"headTitle": "Murder in the Belfry: How the Story of Theodore Durrant Captivated Victorian San Francisco | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"#episode-transcript\">\u003cem>Read a transcript of this episode.\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[dropcap]O[/dropcap]ne hundred twenty-eight years ago, San Francisco was haunted by a bizarre, brutal murder case. And in terms of macabre ingredients, this story truly had it all.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">To make matters worse, this all happened inside one of the city’s revered churches. A mild-mannered \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">gentleman\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">”\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> suspected of killing two young women who knew and trusted him. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">His name was Theodore Durrant, but the press called him “The Demon of the Belfry.” \u003c/span>[baycuriousbug]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Back in 1895, San Franciscans found themselves completely obsessed with this case. But if you ask someone living here now whether they know about “the Demon of the Belfry,” there’s a good chance they’ve never even heard of it.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">What was it about these murders that possessed this city? And how did such an infamous case virtually disappear from the Bay Area’s memory? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>The church on Bartlett Street\u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">If you try to find the \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://digital.library.ucla.edu/catalog/ark:/21198/zz002hrvgg\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Emmanuel Baptist Church\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> these days, you’ll be out of luck as the building was torn down at the turn of the century. But head to the 24th and Mission BART station and walk just a few blocks northwest, and you’ll find yourself near the site that obsessed 1890s San Francisco.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Now, only an apartment building and Victorian houses are on this tree-lined stretch of Bartlett Street between 22nd and 23rd streets. But back then, this huge church would have dominated this street. And at the very top, reaching into the sky above the Mission District, was the church’s bell tower, or belfry — a dark, lonely room which, for several years in the 1890s, became the most dreaded space in San Francisco. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In 1895, the days of this place being a muddy, chaotic mining backwater were long gone, and San Francisco had become a bustling, modern city staring down a new century. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">For almost 20 years, these streets had felt the hum of electricity and the rattle of cable cars alongside the endless thrum of the sheer number of people living within these 7 square miles — around 300,000 of them. The devastating earthquake and fire of 1906 was still more than a decade away.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">At this time, \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.parks.ca.gov/pages/1054/files/Mission_District_context_111607%20(2).pdf\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">the Mission District was called a streetcar suburb\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">: a place increasingly well-connected by mass transit to downtown and heavily inhabited by a working-class mix of immigrants, the majority at this time from Europe.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In the middle of it all, on Bartlett Street, was the Emmanuel Baptist Church — where a quiet, mild-mannered young medical student in his early 20s called Theo Durrant volunteered at the Sunday School.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11965545\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Emmanuel-Baptist.png\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11965545\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Emmanuel-Baptist-800x549.png\" alt=\"Black and white image of the front of a large stone church\" width=\"800\" height=\"549\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Emmanuel-Baptist-800x549.png 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Emmanuel-Baptist-160x110.png 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Emmanuel-Baptist.png 901w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The front of the Emanuel Baptist Church in San Francisco, 1895. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of the California History Room, California State Library, Sacramento, California.)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>‘In the shadow of the altar’\u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">One afternoon in early April 1895, a young Mission District schoolteacher named Blanche Lamont vanished. She was last seen with a friend of hers: Theo Durrant. When Lamont didn’t come home, Durrant was questioned, but police ultimately had no evidence of foul play.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Police were “utterly baffled,” \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=SFC18950410.2.198&srpos=4&e=------189-en--20--1-byDA-txt-txIN-%22blanche+lamont%22----1895---\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">wrote the \u003cem>San Francisco Call\u003c/em> newspaper\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, at how “Blanche Lamont, a beautiful girl … has disappeared as mysteriously as if the earth had swallowed her.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Nine days after Lamont disappeared, another young woman who attended the Emmanuel Baptist Church, Minnie Williams, didn’t come home either. Like Lamont, Williams was last seen with Theo Durrant — who’d been spotted walking her into the church.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The morning after Williams went missing, a volunteer setting up for the church’s Easter service the next day, opened one of the church closets and found Williams’ murdered body lying on the floor inside, covered in blood. She had been beaten, raped, stabbed and strangled, and rags had been stuffed down her throat.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">When police searched the rest of the building, the last place they looked was the very top — in the belfry — and discovered the naked body of Lamont, who had died by strangulation. Her corpse had been laid out as if asleep and hidden up there for almost two weeks.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Instantly, the \u003cem>San Francisco Call\u003c/em> newspaper dubbed it “one of the most atrocious murders ever committed in San Francisco,” with the headline “Struck Down in the Shadow of the Altar.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Theo Durrant was immediately the prime suspect. And from the moment he was arrested, San Francisco’s mania for the “Demon of the Belfry” caught fire.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11965565\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Blanche-and-Minnie.jpg\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11965565\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Blanche-and-Minnie-800x471.jpg\" alt=\"Side by side portraits of two young woman with dark curly hair, taken in the 1890s.\" width=\"800\" height=\"471\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Blanche-and-Minnie-800x471.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Blanche-and-Minnie-1020x601.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Blanche-and-Minnie-160x94.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Blanche-and-Minnie-1536x905.jpg 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Blanche-and-Minnie.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Portraits of Blanche Lamont (left) and Minnie Williams (right). \u003ccite>(Wikimedia Commons)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>An instant sensation\u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It’s hard to convey just how\u003c/span> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">all-consuming this case was in 1895 — dominating the local news and spilling out into newspaper coverage that extended far beyond San Francisco. There was even a play about the case called \u003cem>Crime of a Century\u003c/em> that started running in San Francisco \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">during \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">the trial.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">As for why this case sparked such immediate interest, “\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">there was the undercurrent of that if this could happen in a church … it could happen anywhere,” said Virginia McConnell, author of \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://books.google.com/books/about/Sympathy_for_the_Devil.html?id=dKra0SYhzc0C\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cem>Sympathy For the Devil: The Emmanuel Baptist Murders of Old San Francisco\u003c/em>.\u003c/span>\u003c/a> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Not just that, but, “It could happen in your home.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This murder trial had all the elements to mesmerize a willing city. It had a cast of young characters: well-spoken medical student Durrant and the two young women (whose attractiveness was frequently noted by the press) that he stood accused of violently murdering with his bare hands.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The fact that this crime happened in such a church — and was perpetrated by a young man with all the outward appearances of a total gentleman — reinforced all those fears that people living in a big, growing metropolis can become susceptible to. Namely, a panic that their city was sinking into an unprecedented moral decay. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It was an anxiety all too eagerly stoked by the newspapers, both local and further afield, that framed these crimes as the ultimate sign of San Francisco’s irredeemable rot. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">As Grass Valley’s \u003cem>Morning Union\u003c/em> newspaper wrote, the cases were \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=MU18950416.2.23&srpos=26&e=------189-en--20--21-byDA-txt-txIN-%22emmanuel+baptist+church%22----1895---\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Casting reproach upon the already too low standard of morals in that city\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and a cloud of shame on the good name of our beautiful State.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">There was also breathless speculation about the sexual elements of the case. Had Durrant been romantically involved with either of the two women? Was this “gentleman,” in fact, a depraved pervert who’d habitually harassed and exposed his way through the Mission District, as was rumored? Whispers about the latter were straight-up “misconceptions,” McConnell said, but that didn’t stop the press from running with them. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>‘Spinal shivers’ in court\u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">As the evidence against him mounted up, Durrant’s only hope was winning over the jury on the stand, which he truly failed to do.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Durrant constantly contradicted his alibis and introduced new implausible theories about anyone else who could have murdered Lamont and Williams rather than himself. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">He did not do himself any favors by getting on the stand,” McConnell said, but his lawyers saw no other route to success. “They had no defense for him.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11965546\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/The_San_Francisco_Examiner_1895_07_23_page_3-scaled-e1698258698709.jpg\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11965546\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/The_San_Francisco_Examiner_1895_07_23_page_3-scaled-e1698258698709-800x608.jpg\" alt=\"Illustration of a courtroom scene\" width=\"800\" height=\"608\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/The_San_Francisco_Examiner_1895_07_23_page_3-scaled-e1698258698709-800x608.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/The_San_Francisco_Examiner_1895_07_23_page_3-scaled-e1698258698709-1020x776.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/The_San_Francisco_Examiner_1895_07_23_page_3-scaled-e1698258698709-160x122.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/The_San_Francisco_Examiner_1895_07_23_page_3-scaled-e1698258698709-1536x1168.jpg 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/The_San_Francisco_Examiner_1895_07_23_page_3-scaled-e1698258698709.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An illustration of the courtroom scene during Theo Durrant’s trial, published in the San Francisco Examiner. \u003ccite>(Newspapers.com)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Added to all this was a media fascination with Durrant’s family and the dynamics of their relationship. Rumors of an inappropriate closeness between Durrant, his mother Isabella and his sister Maud spread like wildfire. It was all stoked by Isabella’s proud, unabashed demeanor in court as she watched her son on the stand.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The courtroom was packed every day. The Bay Area didn’t just indulge their fascination with this case through the papers but also physically descended on the courtroom in person. Attending the trial became a sport for many, who craned their necks to see Durrant and his infamous family in the flesh, desperate to hear every gory detail. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“So vivid were the stories, so graphic the pictures, so awful the scenes depicted that men and women leaned forward with straining eyes and hard-drawn breath, catching at every word, hypnotized by the horror of it,” \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/457751594/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">wrote the \u003cem>San Francisco Examiner\u003c/em>.\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The people had been lured into court by those same irresistible, addictive newspaper accounts they were reading every single day. \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The major San Francisco newspapers, including the \u003cem>Chronicle\u003c/em>, competed feverishly for who could attract the most readers with stories that were melodramatic, gossipy and wildly readable. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Just the \u003ci>Examiner’s\u003c/i>\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://sfexaminer.newspapers.com/image/457751594/?terms=annie%20laurie%20durrant\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> description of the crime scene details\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> that were read aloud in the courtroom reads like an excerpt from a gothic horror novel. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Men with a good turn at description had pictured the finding of the bodies of the murdered girls. They had spattered the blood upon the walls. They had dragged Lamont up the belfry’s croaking stairs. The shuddering wind whistled and moaned about that haunted steeple,” one excerpt reads.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">As the trial progressed, the coverage became more lurid, outlandish, and highly unethical, with reporters assigning themselves the kind of investigative role during the trial that you might expect more from the lawyers themselves or the police.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> “They knew that the more sensational it was — the more information they could get — they could sell newspapers,” McConnell said.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Exaggeration often tipped over into the fabrication of whole events, McConnell said, as when one newspaper printed a dramatic story about Durrant going on the run and terrorizing the city, “running through people’s backyards in the Mission District.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In this case, “That whole thing was fake,” McConnell said. “The newspaper had nothing else to print” that day. But nonetheless, the press was secure in the knowledge that their readers craved these kinds of stories. \u003c/span>[emailsignup newslettername=\"baycurious\" align=\"right\"]\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>A growing taste for true crime\u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">1890s San Francisco was already familiar with the tropes and thrills of what we’d now term true crime. As horribly new as this double murder seemed back in 1895, there \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">was \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">precedent for these kinds of famous killings. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Just seven years before Theo went up to the belfry, the serial killer called “Jack the Ripper” terrorized another foggy city, London, in a saga that may have unfolded thousands of miles away but became a worldwide sensation, thanks to the popular press. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The moment the story of Lamont and Williams’ murders broke, the \u003cem>San Francisco Examiner\u003c/em> wrote, “\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The analogy with the murderous career of Jack the Ripper in London will at once suggest itself,” asking, “Is the same bloody drama to be repeated in San Francisco?”\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The trial of Lizzie Borden, accused of murdering her father and stepmother with an ax in their Massachusetts home, had happened just three years before. Boston had even had its own Belfry Murderer 20 years earlier — dubbed “the Bat.” So, by 1895, readers were well and truly familiar with the true crime playbook.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">As gruesome as the details were, for many people, reading about the case or getting a front-row seat in the courtroom was a distraction from the grind of daily life. Or as McConnell put it, “This is entertainment. Think about what the entertainment \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">was \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">back then: zippo.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11965626\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 535px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Durrant-526.jpg\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11965626\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Durrant-526.jpg\" alt=\"Victorian portrait of a man with a mustache\" width=\"535\" height=\"670\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Durrant-526.jpg 535w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Durrant-526-160x200.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 535px) 100vw, 535px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Theo Durrant\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>Man or demon?\u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">One enduring claim about these murders is the idea that Durrant was a necrophiliac who killed and hid Lamont and Williams specifically to be able to sexually abuse their bodies after their death. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But, McConnell said, even though an examination found that Williams \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">was \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">raped before her death, there is virtually no evidence that necrophilia ever occurred — just rumor and speculation. And for McConnell, the fact that these particular allegations \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">are \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">still taken as absolute fact is a testament not just to perennial appetites for ghoulish detail but also to the difficulty so many onlookers in 1895 had with the notion that a man could kill just for the sake of killing — not for money, or to satisfy depraved sexual desires. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Surely, the line of thought went that such a man must have a monster hidden inside him. \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It’s no coincidence that in 1895, you’d have seen Durrant compared to Jekyll and Hyde in the press, both local and national — like in the \u003cem>Utica Saturday Globe\u003c/em>, which boasted that an upcoming issue would contain a full account of Durrant’s “remarkable crime and of his Jekyll and Hyde life, together with special photo-engravings illustrating to the horrible story of murder at which the whole world stood aghast.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Robert Louis Stevenson had only written \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> in 1886\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> —\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> not even a decade before the belfry murders took place. In that relatively short time, this gothic horror novella had already become a common reference point for a normal-looking exterior that concealed a fiendish, murdering alter-ego. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The papers endlessly reported how small and meek Durrant seemed in court, with his neat clothes and hair and slightly oddball manners — as if it was all a disguise he would dramatically rip off at any moment to reveal the real fiend underneath.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>A tale of two victims\u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">If the idea of what a criminal does — and doesn’t — “look like” is still recognizable today, then the idea of a “perfect victim” is unfortunately just as relevant.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Even though Durrant was charged with the murders of both Lamont and Williams (and Williams’ killing was by far the more bloody, physically brutal one), the all-male prosecution team only chose to try him for the murder of Lamont. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11965544\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Blanche_Lamont_with_students.jpg\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11965544\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Blanche_Lamont_with_students.jpg\" alt=\"Black and white image of a group of children sitting on the stairs that lead up to their wooden schoolhouse. Their teacher stands to the left of the staircase wearing a modest black dress and hat.\" width=\"640\" height=\"477\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Blanche_Lamont_with_students.jpg 640w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Blanche_Lamont_with_students-160x119.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Blanche Lamont with a group of her students in Hecla, Montana, in October 1893. Lamont was then 20 years old. \u003ccite>(Library of Congress)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“There was thinking in terms of what is more appealing to an all-male jury,” noted McConnell. Lamont was seen as an upstanding, modest woman with a respectable profession as a teacher in training. By contrast, servant girl Williams was a child of divorce with a patchy employment record: a \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">lower-class woman hustling solo in the Bay Area. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Williams “frequently did things that back then would have been looked at askance,” McConnell said. “She went out on her own. She was frequently out after dark because she had no one to escort her.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It was this necessary self-sufficiency in life that made Williams ultimately less sympathetic in death — echoing broader male anxieties about the independence that women were increasingly acquiring in the shadow of a new century. \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Even the popularity of bicycles among women and how they encouraged them to wear large “bloomer” pants to ride them was a cause for concern around this time.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But this wasn’t even the only way that women’s behavior was itself tacitly on trial alongside Durrant himself. The women who packed out the courtroom became the subject of scathing commentary from the reporters who were there. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Several of the major newspaper reporters were themselves women. One of them conducted many jailhouse interviews with Durrant and extracted what amounted to a confession from him — albeit in the third person. Another, so-called “sob sister,” Annie Laurie, reserved her worst ire for the women in the crowd in her courtroom sketches — \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/457751621/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">some of whom, she wrote, “simpered and giggled\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> whenever they saw anyone looking at them.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Laurie wrote that the women she saw in court “were all triumphant at getting in, they were all well dressed, and they all looked like women who had someone who ought to have made them stay home.” Lamont and Williams reflected those male anxieties about women leaving the domestic space. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“She criticized all the women, and yet she was trying to establish herself,” McConnell said.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Like several modern serial killers, Durrant also attracted female admirers who sent gifts to him in jail. One of these was so infamous she even got her name in the press: a married Oakland woman dubbed “The Sweet Pea Girl” because of the flowers she lavished upon the alleged murderer. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But with women of the time shut out from many aspects of public life, it’s not hard to imagine why inserting themselves into momentous events might have appealed — even if it’s hard to stomach now.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>An end to the trial\u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In the end, it took the jury 20 minutes to unanimously find Durrant guilty of Lamont’s murder. He was taken to San Quentin State Prison, even as his parents steadfastly campaigned for their son’s release. They even \u003ca href=\"https://www.cdcr.ca.gov/insidecdcr/2018/07/14/1897-film-of-convicted-killer-durrant-shapes-prison-policy/\">hired a filmmaker to \u003c/a>\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">bring an early movie camera — a kinetoscope — into San Quentin\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> to film Durrant looking suitably sensitive in the prison’s flower garden. No known copies of the film have survived.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In January 1898, almost three years after he killed Lamont and Williams, Theo Durrant was executed by hanging at the age of 27. On the scaffold, he gave one last speech, calling himself, “An innocent boy who has \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">not \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">stained his hands with crimes that have been put upon him by the press of San Francisco.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But after all of the scandal, all of the column inches screaming about gore and sex, it’s the figures of Lamont and Williams that should linger with us — not their killer. In particular, it’s hard not to dwell on Williams, in particular. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Unlike Lamont, her death never even warranted a trial. “Minnie was somewhat disposable because she really had nothing going for her” in the eyes of the male prosecution team and jury, McConnell said. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">While Lamont’s body was sent home to Montana for a family burial, Williams was buried in San Francisco — only to be dug up decades later when burials within the city limits were outlawed. \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/10779164/why-are-so-many-dead-people-in-colma-and-so-few-in-san-francisco\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Her body was shipped down to Colma with tens of thousands of others\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and dumped in a mass, anonymous grave. An “imperfect victim,” discarded just as much in death as she was in life.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>A relic of the past\u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Even though the Emmanuel Baptist Church swiftly resumed services, neighbors clamored for years that the building be demolished and the stain cleaned from Bartlett Street. In 1906, damage from the earthquake forced the issue. Finally, the church and its infamous belfry were torn down — and every trace of this place was wiped from the face of San Francisco.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11965630\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Bartlett-Street-where-EBC-stood-Carly-Severn-scaled-e1698263132127.jpg\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11965630\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Bartlett-Street-where-EBC-stood-Carly-Severn-scaled-e1698263132127-800x770.jpg\" alt=\"Image taken in the middle of a city street, a 3 story gray building is visible to the right side of the street. There are trees on the left and right sides of the image. \" width=\"800\" height=\"770\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Bartlett-Street-where-EBC-stood-Carly-Severn-scaled-e1698263132127-800x770.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Bartlett-Street-where-EBC-stood-Carly-Severn-scaled-e1698263132127-1020x982.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Bartlett-Street-where-EBC-stood-Carly-Severn-scaled-e1698263132127-160x154.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Bartlett-Street-where-EBC-stood-Carly-Severn-scaled-e1698263132127-1536x1479.jpg 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Bartlett-Street-where-EBC-stood-Carly-Severn-scaled-e1698263132127.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The spot on Bartlett Street where the Emanuel Baptist Church once stood. \u003ccite>(Carly Severn/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And in a way, Durrant has been too. Back then, San Francisco thought he could be their Jack the Ripper, the ultimate boogeyman stopped in his tracks before he truly could get started. Or \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=MU18950416.2.23&srpos=26&e=------189-en--20--21-byDA-txt-txIN-%22emmanuel+baptist+church%22----1895---\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">as the \u003cem>Morning Union\u003c/em> newspaper penned\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, “in the criminal history of California, there possibly has never been a fouler double murder committed.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Durrant \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">was \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">the worst thing the Bay Area could imagine back then. But just think of a few infamous serial murder cases that have stalked California and the West Coast since ‘the Demon in the Belfry.’ We’ve had the Zodiac. Ted Bundy. The Manson Family. The Night Stalker. The Golden State Killer. McConnell said Durrant is “boring compared to them” — and this kind of murder event is “no longer an anomaly.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">While the belfry murders might sometimes be listed as part of San Francisco’s macabre history or occasionally do the rounds on true crime podcasts, Durrant does not occupy anywhere near the space in the public consciousness as those other killers. When he is mentioned, it’s often in conjunction with\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://blog.nationalarchives.gov.uk/lgbtq-history-maud-allan-unnatural-practices-women/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> the wild and compelling adventures of his sister Maud,\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> who moved to Europe shortly before the murders, changed her name to avoid any link to her murderer brother and became an avant-garde dancer who would be entangled in one of the most infamous libel trials of the early 20th century.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Durrant case may be a slice of Old San Francisco that hasn’t quite kept our attention today. But even as many things have changed beyond recognition here when it comes to true crime — and how it makes us act, makes us feel? Some things never change.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[baycuriousquestion]\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2 id=\"episode-transcript\">Episode Transcript\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>This is a computer-generated transcript. While our team has reviewed it, there may be errors.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> 128 years ago, San Francisco was haunted by a bizarre, brutal murder case. A mild-mannered, upstanding \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“gentleman” was\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> suspected of killing two young women who knew and trusted him. And to make matters worse, it happened inside one of the city’s revered churches. \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[Church bell ringing]\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The suspect came to be known as “The Demon of the Belfry.” And in 1895, San Franciscans found themselves completely obsessed with this case.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[Theme music]\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> If you ask someone living here now whether they know about “the Demon of the Belfry,” there’s a good chance they’ve never even heard of it. I was one of them.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This is Boo Curious. And we’ve made it to our final installment in the series. This week, we’re revisiting The Demon of the Belfry case to learn: What happened inside that church? What was it about these murders that possessed the city? And how did such an infamous case virtually disappear from the Bay Area’s memory? We’ll find out just ahead. I’m Olivia Allen-Price. Now, stay close. You don’t want to get lost. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[spooky laugh]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[church bell ringing]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> The Demon of the Belfry murders were the talk of the town in San Francisco around the turn of the century. Here to tell us the tale is KQED’s Carly Severn.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[music shift] \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[sound of a busy cityscape, street cars]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">By 1895, San Francisco’s earlier life as a muddy, chaotic mining backwater was all but gone. This place was now a bustling, modern city staring down a new century. For almost 20 years, these streets had felt the hum of electricity and the rattle of cable cars. Seven by 7 miles \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">packed \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">with people — around 300,000 of them.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Back then, the Mission District was what was called a streetcar suburb, a place increasingly well-connected by mass transit to downtown and heavily inhabited by a working-class mix of immigrants, the majority at this time from Europe.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[sound of church bells] \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> And in the middle of it all, on Bartlett Street, was the Emmanuel Baptist Church. A huge, imposing building. And on the very top, reaching into the sky above the Mission District, was the church’s bell tower — the \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">belfry\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. And for several years in the 1890s, that dark, lonely belfry\u003c/span> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">became the most dreaded space in San Francisco. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[church bells fade] \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Here’s a short version of the case: A quiet, mild-mannered young medical student in his early twenties called Theo Durrant volunteered at the Sunday School. One afternoon in early April 1895, a young Mission District schoolteacher called Blanche Lamont was last seen with a friend of hers … Theo Durrant. When Blanche didn’t come home, Theo was questioned, but the police had no evidence of foul play.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[typing on a typewriter]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Voice reading a newspaper clipping: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The police are utterly baffled. Blanche Lamont, a beautiful girl … has disappeared as mysteriously as if the earth had swallowed her.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Nine days after Blanche disappeared, another young woman who attended the Emmanuel Baptist church — Minnie Williams — didn’t come home either. Like Blanche, she was last seen with Theo Durrant … walking into the church.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[typing on a typewriter]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Voice reading a newspaper clipping:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Blanche Lamont and Minnie Williams were members of the Emmanuel Baptist church and members of the Sunday school class. Both were 21-year-old brunettes, pretty and modest girls.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[music]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The morning after Minnie went missing, a volunteer opened one of the church closets … and found Minnie’s murdered body lying on the floor inside. And when police searched the rest of the building, the last place they looked was the very top: in the belfry. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[typing on a typewriter]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Voice reading a newspaper clipping: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">They broke in the door. It was so dark they could not see, and one of them struck a match. As the light flared, they saw before them the dead body of the girl for whom they were searching. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The body of Blanche Lamont had been hidden up there for almost two weeks. Theo Durrant was immediately the prime suspect. And from the moment he was arrested, San Francisco’s mania for the “Demon of the Belfry” caught fire.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Virginia McConnell\u003c/b>\u003cb>: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">There was the undercurrent of that, that this could happen in a church if it could happen in a church. It could happen anywhere. It could happen in your home.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[music ends]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Writer Virginia McConnell used to practice law in San Francisco in the 1970s. When she moved into teaching, she also began digging into criminal histories of the past … and wound up writing a whole book on the Theo Durrant case. This murder trial had all the elements to mesmerize a willing city. It had a cast of young characters: well-spoken medical student Theo and the two attractive young women he stood accused of violently murdering with his bare hands. And this horrific double murder had taken place in a sacred space – the Emmanuel Baptist Church – which had then become these women’s tomb. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Virginia McConnell\u003c/b>\u003cb>: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">That was the horror of, you know, is not the same as if, you know, you did it down at the local bar, but you did it in a church. So where was God now? Supposedly protecting his people. What happened to these two girls? That they could not be protected? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Not only that, this reinforced all those fears that people living in a big, growing metropolis are susceptible to. That panic that their city was sinking into an unprecedented moral decay – an anxiety stoked by the newspapers that framed these crimes as the ultimate sign of San Francisco’s irredeemable rot. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[typing on a typewriter]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Voice reading a newspaper clipping: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Casting reproach upon the already too low standard of morals in that city and a cloud of shame on the good name of our beautiful State.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[music begins] \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Then \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">there was the breathless speculation about sex — scandalous, intriguing, salacious. Had Theo been romantically involved with either of the two women? Was this “gentleman,” in fact, a depraved pervert who’d habitually harassed and exposed his way through the Mission District, as was rumored?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Virginia McConnell\u003c/b>\u003cb>: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">They still have these misconceptions that Theo was luring women into the church and exposing himself. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">then \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">there was Theo’s family. Rumors of an \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">inappropriate \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">closeness between Theo, his mother, and his sister spread like wildfire. It’s hard to convey just how\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> all-consuming\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> this case was in 1895. It dominated the news, swallowing up all the oxygen, and was covered far beyond San Francisco, all across the country. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[music ends]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And as the evidence against him mounted up, Theo Durrant’s only hope was winning over the jury on the stand, which this oddly mannered young man truly failed to do. He constantly contradicted his own alibis and introduced new implausible theories about anyone else who could have murdered Blanche and Minnie rather than himself.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Virginia McConnell\u003c/b>\u003cb>: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">He did not do himself any favors by getting on the stand, but they had no other …. They had no defense for him. They had no defense.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[sounds of people talking in a courtroom]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And that’s the thing: this courtroom was packed. Because the Bay Area didn’t \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">just \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">indulge their fascination with this case through the papers. They also physically descended on the courtroom in person.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[typing on a typewriter]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Voice reading a newspaper clipping: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">So vivid were the stories, so graphic the pictures, so awful the scenes depicted that men and women leaned forward with straining eyes and hard-drawn breath, catching at every word, hypnotized by the horror of it. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The major San Francisco newspapers, including the Chronicle, competed feverishly for who could attract the most readers with stories that were melodramatic, gossipy and \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">crazy\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">-readable. And as the trial progressed, the coverage became more lurid, more outlandish, and \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">highly \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">unethical. With reporters assigning themselves the kind of \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">investigative \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">role \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">during the trial itself \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">that you might more expect from the lawyers themselves or the police.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Virginia McConnell\u003c/b>\u003cb>:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Because they knew that [the] more sensational it was, the more information they could get. They could sell newspapers. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">One newspaper printed a dramatic story about Theo going on the run and terrorizing the city:\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Virginia McConnell\u003c/b>\u003cb>:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> They were going to arrest him, and he had escaped, and he was running through people’s backyards in the Mission district.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It’s a great story! Except… it never happened.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Virginia McConnell\u003c/b>\u003cb>:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> That whole thing was fake. That was false. The newspaper had nothing else to print. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But the papers knew their readers \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">wanted \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">this. Humans have \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">always \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">wanted to gobble up true crime stories – whether in the daily paper back then or on our TV screens. Or increasingly, in our podcast feeds. \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Hello there. \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And as horribly new as this double murder seemed back in 1895, there was precedent for these kinds of famous killings.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Voice reading a newspaper clipping: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The analogy with the murderous career of Jack the Ripper in London will at once suggest itself … Is the same bloody drama to be repeated in San Francisco?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Just seven years before Theo went up to the belfry, the serial killer called “Jack the Ripper” terrorized \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">another \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">foggy city, London — in a saga that may have unfolded thousands of miles away but became a worldwide sensation thanks to the popular press. The trial of Lizzie Borden, accused of murdering her own father and stepmother with an ax in their Massachusetts home, had happened just \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">three\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> years before. \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Boston \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">had even had its own Belfry Murderer 20 years earlier — dubbed “the Bat.” So, by 1895, there \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">was \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">a \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">playbook \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">for this stuff. And as horrible as it was, for many people, this was a distraction from the grind of daily life:\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Virginia McConnell\u003c/b>\u003cb>:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> This is entertainment. Think about what the entertainment was back then. Zippo. That’s what it was. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But many onlookers in 1895 clearly \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">had difficulty \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">with the notion that a man could kill \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">just \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">for the sake of killing — not for profit or to satisfy depraved desires. Which is maybe why the \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">worst \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">legends about Theo Durrant were based around what he might have done to Blanche and Minnie’s bodies \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">after \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">their death — gruesome speculation about his “true” motive that endures to this day. It’s no coincidence that you’d have seen Theo compared to “Jekyll and Hyde” in the press — a book that was published not \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">that \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">long before the Belfry case but had already become a\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">n understood reference for a normal-looking exterior that concealed a fiendish, murdering alter-ego. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Virginia McConnell\u003c/b>\u003cb>:\u003c/b> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It’s a way, I think, of coming to terms with people who seem to be good can do bad things. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">If the idea of what a criminal does — and doesn’t — “look like” is still recognizable today … then the idea of a “perfect victim” is unfortunately just as relevant. \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Even though Theo was charged with the murders of \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">both \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Blanche and Minnie and Minnie’s killing was by far the more bloody, physically brutal one, the all-male prosecution team chose to only try him for the murder of Blanche. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Virginia McConnell\u003c/b>\u003cb>:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> There was thinking in terms of what is more appealing to an all-male jury. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Blanche was seen as an upstanding woman with a respectable profession as a teacher in training. By contrast, servant girl Minnie was a child of divorce with a patchy employment record: a \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">lower-class woman hustling solo in the Bay Area. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Virginia McConnell\u003c/b>\u003cb>:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> She was on her own. She frequently did things that back then would have been looked at askance. She went out on her own. She was frequently out, you know, after dark because she had no one to escort her. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And it was this necessary self-sufficiency in life that made Minnie ultimately less sympathetic in death — echoing wider male anxieties about the independence that women were increasingly acquiring in the shadow of a new century. \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But this wasn’t \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">even \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">the only way that the behavior of women was itself tacitly on trial alongside Theo himself. The \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">women \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">who packed out that courtroom became the subject of \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">scathing \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">commentary from the reporters who were there — some of whom, for what it’s worth, were women themselves.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[typing on a typewriter]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Voice reading a newspaper clipping: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">They were all well dressed, and they all looked like women who had someone who ought to have made them stay home.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Like several \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">modern \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">serial killers, Theo also attracted admirers – groupies, even, who sent gifts to him in jail. One of these was so infamous she even got her own name in the press: a married Oakland woman dubbed “The Sweet Pea Girl” because of the flowers she lavished upon Theo. But with women of the time shut out from many aspects of public life, it’s not hard to imagine why inserting themselves into momentous events might have held an appeal — even if it’s hard to stomach now.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In the end, it took the jury just 20 minutes to unanimously find Theo Durrant guilty of Blanche’s murder. He was taken to San Quentin State Prison, even as his parents steadfastly campaigned for their son’s release. In January 1898 — almost three years after he killed Blanche Lamont and Minnie Williams — Theo Durrant was executed by hanging age 27. On the scaffold, he gave one last speech, calling himself: \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Voice reading Theo Durrant quote: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">An innocent boy who has \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">not \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">stained his hands with crimes that have been put upon him by the press of San Francisco.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[music starts]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But after all of the scandal, all of the column inches screaming about gore and sex, it’s the figures of Blanche Lamont and Minnie Williams that should linger with us — not their killer. And it’s hard not to be left with thoughts of Minnie Williams in particular. Unlike Blanche, her death never even warranted a trial. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Virginia McConnell\u003c/b>\u003cb>:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Minnie was somewhat disposable because she really had nothing going for her. You know, that’s what was in their in their eyes. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And while Blanche’s body was sent home to Montana for a family burial, Minnie was buried in San Francisco — only to be dug up several decades later when cemeteries started moving south to make way for a growing city. Her body was shipped down to Colma with tens of thousands of others and dumped in a mass, anonymous grave. An “imperfect victim,” discarded just as much in death as she was in life.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[music stops]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Even though the Emmanuel Baptist Church swiftly resumed services, neighbors clamored for years that the building be demolished and the stain cleaned from Bartlett Street. In 1906, damage from the earthquake forced the issue. Finally, the Church and its infamous belfry were torn down — and every trace of this place was wiped from the face of San Francisco. And in a way, Theo Durrant has been too. Back then, San Francisco thought Theo could be their Jack the Ripper, the ultimate boogeyman stopped in his tracks before he truly could get started. Or, as one newspaper put it:\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Voice reading a newspaper clipping: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In the criminal history of California, there possibly has never been a fouler double murder committed than that just brought to light in San Francisco.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Theo \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">was \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">the \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">worst \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">thing the Bay Area could imagine back then. But just think of a few of the infamous serial murder cases that have stalked California and the West Coast since ‘The Demon in the Belfry.’ We’ve had the Zodiac. Ted Bundy. The Manson Family. The Night Stalker. The Golden State Killer. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Virginia McConnell\u003c/b>\u003cb>:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> He’s boring compared to them. So I think that is \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">probably the biggest thing is that it’s no longer a, you know, an anomaly. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">So this \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">may \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">be a slice of Old San Francisco that hasn’t quite kept our attention today. But even as many things have changed beyond recognition when it comes to true crime — and the way it makes us \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">act\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, makes us \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">feel\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">? Some things \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">never \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">change here.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">That was reporter Carly Severn. And with that, we blow out the candles on this Boo Curious series. Thank you for listening along. We learned that Sarah Winchester may have just been doing her best when she designed her spooky mansion. We saw how a legend, true or not, can bring a community like Hayward together. Then there was the Church of Satan — more performance art than anything truly sinister. And the Dunsmuir Estate — more of a fixer-upper than a house of horrors. As the saying goes, things are not always what they seem. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Bay Curious is made in San Francisco at member-supported KQED. The show is produced by Amanda Font, Christopher Beale, and me, Olivia Allen-Price. The vocal performers in this episode were Paul Lancour, Dan Brekke, Bianca Taylor, and Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman. Additional support for Bay Curious comes from Jen Chien, Katie Sprenger, Cesar Saldana, Maha Sanad, Holly Kernan, and the whole KQED Family. I hope you have a wonderful week and a safe and celebratory Halloween. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "San Francisco in the 1890s was whipped into a frenzy by media coverage of a double murder committed by a man they compared to Jack the Ripper.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"#episode-transcript\">\u003cem>Read a transcript of this episode.\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__dropcapShortcode__dropcap\">O\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>ne hundred twenty-eight years ago, San Francisco was haunted by a bizarre, brutal murder case. And in terms of macabre ingredients, this story truly had it all.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">To make matters worse, this all happened inside one of the city’s revered churches. A mild-mannered \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">gentleman\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">”\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> suspected of killing two young women who knew and trusted him. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">His name was Theodore Durrant, but the press called him “The Demon of the Belfry.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003caside class=\"alignleft utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__bayCuriousPodcastShortcode__bayCurious\">\u003cimg src=https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/bayCuriousLogo.png alt=\"Bay Curious Podcast\" loading=\"lazy\" />\n What do you wonder about the Bay Area, its culture or people that you want KQED to investigate?\n \u003ca href=\"/news/series/baycurious\">Ask Bay Curious.\u003c/a>\u003c/aside>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Back in 1895, San Franciscans found themselves completely obsessed with this case. But if you ask someone living here now whether they know about “the Demon of the Belfry,” there’s a good chance they’ve never even heard of it.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">What was it about these murders that possessed this city? And how did such an infamous case virtually disappear from the Bay Area’s memory? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>The church on Bartlett Street\u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">If you try to find the \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://digital.library.ucla.edu/catalog/ark:/21198/zz002hrvgg\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Emmanuel Baptist Church\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> these days, you’ll be out of luck as the building was torn down at the turn of the century. But head to the 24th and Mission BART station and walk just a few blocks northwest, and you’ll find yourself near the site that obsessed 1890s San Francisco.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Now, only an apartment building and Victorian houses are on this tree-lined stretch of Bartlett Street between 22nd and 23rd streets. But back then, this huge church would have dominated this street. And at the very top, reaching into the sky above the Mission District, was the church’s bell tower, or belfry — a dark, lonely room which, for several years in the 1890s, became the most dreaded space in San Francisco. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In 1895, the days of this place being a muddy, chaotic mining backwater were long gone, and San Francisco had become a bustling, modern city staring down a new century. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">For almost 20 years, these streets had felt the hum of electricity and the rattle of cable cars alongside the endless thrum of the sheer number of people living within these 7 square miles — around 300,000 of them. The devastating earthquake and fire of 1906 was still more than a decade away.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">At this time, \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.parks.ca.gov/pages/1054/files/Mission_District_context_111607%20(2).pdf\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">the Mission District was called a streetcar suburb\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">: a place increasingly well-connected by mass transit to downtown and heavily inhabited by a working-class mix of immigrants, the majority at this time from Europe.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In the middle of it all, on Bartlett Street, was the Emmanuel Baptist Church — where a quiet, mild-mannered young medical student in his early 20s called Theo Durrant volunteered at the Sunday School.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11965545\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Emmanuel-Baptist.png\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11965545\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Emmanuel-Baptist-800x549.png\" alt=\"Black and white image of the front of a large stone church\" width=\"800\" height=\"549\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Emmanuel-Baptist-800x549.png 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Emmanuel-Baptist-160x110.png 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Emmanuel-Baptist.png 901w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The front of the Emanuel Baptist Church in San Francisco, 1895. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of the California History Room, California State Library, Sacramento, California.)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>‘In the shadow of the altar’\u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">One afternoon in early April 1895, a young Mission District schoolteacher named Blanche Lamont vanished. She was last seen with a friend of hers: Theo Durrant. When Lamont didn’t come home, Durrant was questioned, but police ultimately had no evidence of foul play.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Police were “utterly baffled,” \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=SFC18950410.2.198&srpos=4&e=------189-en--20--1-byDA-txt-txIN-%22blanche+lamont%22----1895---\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">wrote the \u003cem>San Francisco Call\u003c/em> newspaper\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, at how “Blanche Lamont, a beautiful girl … has disappeared as mysteriously as if the earth had swallowed her.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Nine days after Lamont disappeared, another young woman who attended the Emmanuel Baptist Church, Minnie Williams, didn’t come home either. Like Lamont, Williams was last seen with Theo Durrant — who’d been spotted walking her into the church.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The morning after Williams went missing, a volunteer setting up for the church’s Easter service the next day, opened one of the church closets and found Williams’ murdered body lying on the floor inside, covered in blood. She had been beaten, raped, stabbed and strangled, and rags had been stuffed down her throat.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">When police searched the rest of the building, the last place they looked was the very top — in the belfry — and discovered the naked body of Lamont, who had died by strangulation. Her corpse had been laid out as if asleep and hidden up there for almost two weeks.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Instantly, the \u003cem>San Francisco Call\u003c/em> newspaper dubbed it “one of the most atrocious murders ever committed in San Francisco,” with the headline “Struck Down in the Shadow of the Altar.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Theo Durrant was immediately the prime suspect. And from the moment he was arrested, San Francisco’s mania for the “Demon of the Belfry” caught fire.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11965565\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Blanche-and-Minnie.jpg\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11965565\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Blanche-and-Minnie-800x471.jpg\" alt=\"Side by side portraits of two young woman with dark curly hair, taken in the 1890s.\" width=\"800\" height=\"471\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Blanche-and-Minnie-800x471.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Blanche-and-Minnie-1020x601.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Blanche-and-Minnie-160x94.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Blanche-and-Minnie-1536x905.jpg 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Blanche-and-Minnie.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Portraits of Blanche Lamont (left) and Minnie Williams (right). \u003ccite>(Wikimedia Commons)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>An instant sensation\u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It’s hard to convey just how\u003c/span> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">all-consuming this case was in 1895 — dominating the local news and spilling out into newspaper coverage that extended far beyond San Francisco. There was even a play about the case called \u003cem>Crime of a Century\u003c/em> that started running in San Francisco \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">during \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">the trial.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">As for why this case sparked such immediate interest, “\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">there was the undercurrent of that if this could happen in a church … it could happen anywhere,” said Virginia McConnell, author of \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://books.google.com/books/about/Sympathy_for_the_Devil.html?id=dKra0SYhzc0C\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cem>Sympathy For the Devil: The Emmanuel Baptist Murders of Old San Francisco\u003c/em>.\u003c/span>\u003c/a> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Not just that, but, “It could happen in your home.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This murder trial had all the elements to mesmerize a willing city. It had a cast of young characters: well-spoken medical student Durrant and the two young women (whose attractiveness was frequently noted by the press) that he stood accused of violently murdering with his bare hands.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The fact that this crime happened in such a church — and was perpetrated by a young man with all the outward appearances of a total gentleman — reinforced all those fears that people living in a big, growing metropolis can become susceptible to. Namely, a panic that their city was sinking into an unprecedented moral decay. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It was an anxiety all too eagerly stoked by the newspapers, both local and further afield, that framed these crimes as the ultimate sign of San Francisco’s irredeemable rot. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">As Grass Valley’s \u003cem>Morning Union\u003c/em> newspaper wrote, the cases were \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=MU18950416.2.23&srpos=26&e=------189-en--20--21-byDA-txt-txIN-%22emmanuel+baptist+church%22----1895---\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Casting reproach upon the already too low standard of morals in that city\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and a cloud of shame on the good name of our beautiful State.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">There was also breathless speculation about the sexual elements of the case. Had Durrant been romantically involved with either of the two women? Was this “gentleman,” in fact, a depraved pervert who’d habitually harassed and exposed his way through the Mission District, as was rumored? Whispers about the latter were straight-up “misconceptions,” McConnell said, but that didn’t stop the press from running with them. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>‘Spinal shivers’ in court\u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">As the evidence against him mounted up, Durrant’s only hope was winning over the jury on the stand, which he truly failed to do.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Durrant constantly contradicted his alibis and introduced new implausible theories about anyone else who could have murdered Lamont and Williams rather than himself. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">He did not do himself any favors by getting on the stand,” McConnell said, but his lawyers saw no other route to success. “They had no defense for him.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11965546\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/The_San_Francisco_Examiner_1895_07_23_page_3-scaled-e1698258698709.jpg\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11965546\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/The_San_Francisco_Examiner_1895_07_23_page_3-scaled-e1698258698709-800x608.jpg\" alt=\"Illustration of a courtroom scene\" width=\"800\" height=\"608\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/The_San_Francisco_Examiner_1895_07_23_page_3-scaled-e1698258698709-800x608.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/The_San_Francisco_Examiner_1895_07_23_page_3-scaled-e1698258698709-1020x776.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/The_San_Francisco_Examiner_1895_07_23_page_3-scaled-e1698258698709-160x122.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/The_San_Francisco_Examiner_1895_07_23_page_3-scaled-e1698258698709-1536x1168.jpg 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/The_San_Francisco_Examiner_1895_07_23_page_3-scaled-e1698258698709.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An illustration of the courtroom scene during Theo Durrant’s trial, published in the San Francisco Examiner. \u003ccite>(Newspapers.com)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Added to all this was a media fascination with Durrant’s family and the dynamics of their relationship. Rumors of an inappropriate closeness between Durrant, his mother Isabella and his sister Maud spread like wildfire. It was all stoked by Isabella’s proud, unabashed demeanor in court as she watched her son on the stand.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The courtroom was packed every day. The Bay Area didn’t just indulge their fascination with this case through the papers but also physically descended on the courtroom in person. Attending the trial became a sport for many, who craned their necks to see Durrant and his infamous family in the flesh, desperate to hear every gory detail. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“So vivid were the stories, so graphic the pictures, so awful the scenes depicted that men and women leaned forward with straining eyes and hard-drawn breath, catching at every word, hypnotized by the horror of it,” \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/457751594/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">wrote the \u003cem>San Francisco Examiner\u003c/em>.\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The people had been lured into court by those same irresistible, addictive newspaper accounts they were reading every single day. \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The major San Francisco newspapers, including the \u003cem>Chronicle\u003c/em>, competed feverishly for who could attract the most readers with stories that were melodramatic, gossipy and wildly readable. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Just the \u003ci>Examiner’s\u003c/i>\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://sfexaminer.newspapers.com/image/457751594/?terms=annie%20laurie%20durrant\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> description of the crime scene details\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> that were read aloud in the courtroom reads like an excerpt from a gothic horror novel. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Men with a good turn at description had pictured the finding of the bodies of the murdered girls. They had spattered the blood upon the walls. They had dragged Lamont up the belfry’s croaking stairs. The shuddering wind whistled and moaned about that haunted steeple,” one excerpt reads.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">As the trial progressed, the coverage became more lurid, outlandish, and highly unethical, with reporters assigning themselves the kind of investigative role during the trial that you might expect more from the lawyers themselves or the police.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> “They knew that the more sensational it was — the more information they could get — they could sell newspapers,” McConnell said.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Exaggeration often tipped over into the fabrication of whole events, McConnell said, as when one newspaper printed a dramatic story about Durrant going on the run and terrorizing the city, “running through people’s backyards in the Mission District.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In this case, “That whole thing was fake,” McConnell said. “The newspaper had nothing else to print” that day. But nonetheless, the press was secure in the knowledge that their readers craved these kinds of stories. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>A growing taste for true crime\u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">1890s San Francisco was already familiar with the tropes and thrills of what we’d now term true crime. As horribly new as this double murder seemed back in 1895, there \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">was \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">precedent for these kinds of famous killings. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Just seven years before Theo went up to the belfry, the serial killer called “Jack the Ripper” terrorized another foggy city, London, in a saga that may have unfolded thousands of miles away but became a worldwide sensation, thanks to the popular press. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The moment the story of Lamont and Williams’ murders broke, the \u003cem>San Francisco Examiner\u003c/em> wrote, “\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The analogy with the murderous career of Jack the Ripper in London will at once suggest itself,” asking, “Is the same bloody drama to be repeated in San Francisco?”\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The trial of Lizzie Borden, accused of murdering her father and stepmother with an ax in their Massachusetts home, had happened just three years before. Boston had even had its own Belfry Murderer 20 years earlier — dubbed “the Bat.” So, by 1895, readers were well and truly familiar with the true crime playbook.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">As gruesome as the details were, for many people, reading about the case or getting a front-row seat in the courtroom was a distraction from the grind of daily life. Or as McConnell put it, “This is entertainment. Think about what the entertainment \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">was \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">back then: zippo.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11965626\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 535px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Durrant-526.jpg\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11965626\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Durrant-526.jpg\" alt=\"Victorian portrait of a man with a mustache\" width=\"535\" height=\"670\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Durrant-526.jpg 535w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Durrant-526-160x200.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 535px) 100vw, 535px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Theo Durrant\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>Man or demon?\u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">One enduring claim about these murders is the idea that Durrant was a necrophiliac who killed and hid Lamont and Williams specifically to be able to sexually abuse their bodies after their death. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But, McConnell said, even though an examination found that Williams \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">was \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">raped before her death, there is virtually no evidence that necrophilia ever occurred — just rumor and speculation. And for McConnell, the fact that these particular allegations \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">are \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">still taken as absolute fact is a testament not just to perennial appetites for ghoulish detail but also to the difficulty so many onlookers in 1895 had with the notion that a man could kill just for the sake of killing — not for money, or to satisfy depraved sexual desires. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Surely, the line of thought went that such a man must have a monster hidden inside him. \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It’s no coincidence that in 1895, you’d have seen Durrant compared to Jekyll and Hyde in the press, both local and national — like in the \u003cem>Utica Saturday Globe\u003c/em>, which boasted that an upcoming issue would contain a full account of Durrant’s “remarkable crime and of his Jekyll and Hyde life, together with special photo-engravings illustrating to the horrible story of murder at which the whole world stood aghast.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Robert Louis Stevenson had only written \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> in 1886\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> —\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> not even a decade before the belfry murders took place. In that relatively short time, this gothic horror novella had already become a common reference point for a normal-looking exterior that concealed a fiendish, murdering alter-ego. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The papers endlessly reported how small and meek Durrant seemed in court, with his neat clothes and hair and slightly oddball manners — as if it was all a disguise he would dramatically rip off at any moment to reveal the real fiend underneath.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>A tale of two victims\u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">If the idea of what a criminal does — and doesn’t — “look like” is still recognizable today, then the idea of a “perfect victim” is unfortunately just as relevant.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Even though Durrant was charged with the murders of both Lamont and Williams (and Williams’ killing was by far the more bloody, physically brutal one), the all-male prosecution team only chose to try him for the murder of Lamont. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11965544\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Blanche_Lamont_with_students.jpg\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11965544\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Blanche_Lamont_with_students.jpg\" alt=\"Black and white image of a group of children sitting on the stairs that lead up to their wooden schoolhouse. Their teacher stands to the left of the staircase wearing a modest black dress and hat.\" width=\"640\" height=\"477\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Blanche_Lamont_with_students.jpg 640w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Blanche_Lamont_with_students-160x119.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Blanche Lamont with a group of her students in Hecla, Montana, in October 1893. Lamont was then 20 years old. \u003ccite>(Library of Congress)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“There was thinking in terms of what is more appealing to an all-male jury,” noted McConnell. Lamont was seen as an upstanding, modest woman with a respectable profession as a teacher in training. By contrast, servant girl Williams was a child of divorce with a patchy employment record: a \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">lower-class woman hustling solo in the Bay Area. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Williams “frequently did things that back then would have been looked at askance,” McConnell said. “She went out on her own. She was frequently out after dark because she had no one to escort her.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It was this necessary self-sufficiency in life that made Williams ultimately less sympathetic in death — echoing broader male anxieties about the independence that women were increasingly acquiring in the shadow of a new century. \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Even the popularity of bicycles among women and how they encouraged them to wear large “bloomer” pants to ride them was a cause for concern around this time.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But this wasn’t even the only way that women’s behavior was itself tacitly on trial alongside Durrant himself. The women who packed out the courtroom became the subject of scathing commentary from the reporters who were there. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Several of the major newspaper reporters were themselves women. One of them conducted many jailhouse interviews with Durrant and extracted what amounted to a confession from him — albeit in the third person. Another, so-called “sob sister,” Annie Laurie, reserved her worst ire for the women in the crowd in her courtroom sketches — \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/457751621/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">some of whom, she wrote, “simpered and giggled\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> whenever they saw anyone looking at them.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Laurie wrote that the women she saw in court “were all triumphant at getting in, they were all well dressed, and they all looked like women who had someone who ought to have made them stay home.” Lamont and Williams reflected those male anxieties about women leaving the domestic space. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“She criticized all the women, and yet she was trying to establish herself,” McConnell said.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Like several modern serial killers, Durrant also attracted female admirers who sent gifts to him in jail. One of these was so infamous she even got her name in the press: a married Oakland woman dubbed “The Sweet Pea Girl” because of the flowers she lavished upon the alleged murderer. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But with women of the time shut out from many aspects of public life, it’s not hard to imagine why inserting themselves into momentous events might have appealed — even if it’s hard to stomach now.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>An end to the trial\u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In the end, it took the jury 20 minutes to unanimously find Durrant guilty of Lamont’s murder. He was taken to San Quentin State Prison, even as his parents steadfastly campaigned for their son’s release. They even \u003ca href=\"https://www.cdcr.ca.gov/insidecdcr/2018/07/14/1897-film-of-convicted-killer-durrant-shapes-prison-policy/\">hired a filmmaker to \u003c/a>\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">bring an early movie camera — a kinetoscope — into San Quentin\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> to film Durrant looking suitably sensitive in the prison’s flower garden. No known copies of the film have survived.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In January 1898, almost three years after he killed Lamont and Williams, Theo Durrant was executed by hanging at the age of 27. On the scaffold, he gave one last speech, calling himself, “An innocent boy who has \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">not \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">stained his hands with crimes that have been put upon him by the press of San Francisco.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But after all of the scandal, all of the column inches screaming about gore and sex, it’s the figures of Lamont and Williams that should linger with us — not their killer. In particular, it’s hard not to dwell on Williams, in particular. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Unlike Lamont, her death never even warranted a trial. “Minnie was somewhat disposable because she really had nothing going for her” in the eyes of the male prosecution team and jury, McConnell said. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">While Lamont’s body was sent home to Montana for a family burial, Williams was buried in San Francisco — only to be dug up decades later when burials within the city limits were outlawed. \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/10779164/why-are-so-many-dead-people-in-colma-and-so-few-in-san-francisco\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Her body was shipped down to Colma with tens of thousands of others\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and dumped in a mass, anonymous grave. An “imperfect victim,” discarded just as much in death as she was in life.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>A relic of the past\u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Even though the Emmanuel Baptist Church swiftly resumed services, neighbors clamored for years that the building be demolished and the stain cleaned from Bartlett Street. In 1906, damage from the earthquake forced the issue. Finally, the church and its infamous belfry were torn down — and every trace of this place was wiped from the face of San Francisco.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11965630\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Bartlett-Street-where-EBC-stood-Carly-Severn-scaled-e1698263132127.jpg\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11965630\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Bartlett-Street-where-EBC-stood-Carly-Severn-scaled-e1698263132127-800x770.jpg\" alt=\"Image taken in the middle of a city street, a 3 story gray building is visible to the right side of the street. There are trees on the left and right sides of the image. \" width=\"800\" height=\"770\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Bartlett-Street-where-EBC-stood-Carly-Severn-scaled-e1698263132127-800x770.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Bartlett-Street-where-EBC-stood-Carly-Severn-scaled-e1698263132127-1020x982.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Bartlett-Street-where-EBC-stood-Carly-Severn-scaled-e1698263132127-160x154.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Bartlett-Street-where-EBC-stood-Carly-Severn-scaled-e1698263132127-1536x1479.jpg 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Bartlett-Street-where-EBC-stood-Carly-Severn-scaled-e1698263132127.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The spot on Bartlett Street where the Emanuel Baptist Church once stood. \u003ccite>(Carly Severn/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And in a way, Durrant has been too. Back then, San Francisco thought he could be their Jack the Ripper, the ultimate boogeyman stopped in his tracks before he truly could get started. Or \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=MU18950416.2.23&srpos=26&e=------189-en--20--21-byDA-txt-txIN-%22emmanuel+baptist+church%22----1895---\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">as the \u003cem>Morning Union\u003c/em> newspaper penned\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, “in the criminal history of California, there possibly has never been a fouler double murder committed.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Durrant \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">was \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">the worst thing the Bay Area could imagine back then. But just think of a few infamous serial murder cases that have stalked California and the West Coast since ‘the Demon in the Belfry.’ We’ve had the Zodiac. Ted Bundy. The Manson Family. The Night Stalker. The Golden State Killer. McConnell said Durrant is “boring compared to them” — and this kind of murder event is “no longer an anomaly.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">While the belfry murders might sometimes be listed as part of San Francisco’s macabre history or occasionally do the rounds on true crime podcasts, Durrant does not occupy anywhere near the space in the public consciousness as those other killers. When he is mentioned, it’s often in conjunction with\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://blog.nationalarchives.gov.uk/lgbtq-history-maud-allan-unnatural-practices-women/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> the wild and compelling adventures of his sister Maud,\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> who moved to Europe shortly before the murders, changed her name to avoid any link to her murderer brother and became an avant-garde dancer who would be entangled in one of the most infamous libel trials of the early 20th century.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Durrant case may be a slice of Old San Francisco that hasn’t quite kept our attention today. But even as many things have changed beyond recognition here when it comes to true crime — and how it makes us act, makes us feel? Some things never change.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-content post-body\">\u003ch2 id=\"episode-transcript\">Episode Transcript\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>This is a computer-generated transcript. While our team has reviewed it, there may be errors.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> 128 years ago, San Francisco was haunted by a bizarre, brutal murder case. A mild-mannered, upstanding \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“gentleman” was\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> suspected of killing two young women who knew and trusted him. And to make matters worse, it happened inside one of the city’s revered churches. \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[Church bell ringing]\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The suspect came to be known as “The Demon of the Belfry.” And in 1895, San Franciscans found themselves completely obsessed with this case.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[Theme music]\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> If you ask someone living here now whether they know about “the Demon of the Belfry,” there’s a good chance they’ve never even heard of it. I was one of them.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This is Boo Curious. And we’ve made it to our final installment in the series. This week, we’re revisiting The Demon of the Belfry case to learn: What happened inside that church? What was it about these murders that possessed the city? And how did such an infamous case virtually disappear from the Bay Area’s memory? We’ll find out just ahead. I’m Olivia Allen-Price. Now, stay close. You don’t want to get lost. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[spooky laugh]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[church bell ringing]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> The Demon of the Belfry murders were the talk of the town in San Francisco around the turn of the century. Here to tell us the tale is KQED’s Carly Severn.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[music shift] \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[sound of a busy cityscape, street cars]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">By 1895, San Francisco’s earlier life as a muddy, chaotic mining backwater was all but gone. This place was now a bustling, modern city staring down a new century. For almost 20 years, these streets had felt the hum of electricity and the rattle of cable cars. Seven by 7 miles \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">packed \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">with people — around 300,000 of them.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Back then, the Mission District was what was called a streetcar suburb, a place increasingly well-connected by mass transit to downtown and heavily inhabited by a working-class mix of immigrants, the majority at this time from Europe.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[sound of church bells] \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> And in the middle of it all, on Bartlett Street, was the Emmanuel Baptist Church. A huge, imposing building. And on the very top, reaching into the sky above the Mission District, was the church’s bell tower — the \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">belfry\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. And for several years in the 1890s, that dark, lonely belfry\u003c/span> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">became the most dreaded space in San Francisco. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[church bells fade] \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Here’s a short version of the case: A quiet, mild-mannered young medical student in his early twenties called Theo Durrant volunteered at the Sunday School. One afternoon in early April 1895, a young Mission District schoolteacher called Blanche Lamont was last seen with a friend of hers … Theo Durrant. When Blanche didn’t come home, Theo was questioned, but the police had no evidence of foul play.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[typing on a typewriter]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Voice reading a newspaper clipping: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The police are utterly baffled. Blanche Lamont, a beautiful girl … has disappeared as mysteriously as if the earth had swallowed her.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Nine days after Blanche disappeared, another young woman who attended the Emmanuel Baptist church — Minnie Williams — didn’t come home either. Like Blanche, she was last seen with Theo Durrant … walking into the church.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[typing on a typewriter]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Voice reading a newspaper clipping:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Blanche Lamont and Minnie Williams were members of the Emmanuel Baptist church and members of the Sunday school class. Both were 21-year-old brunettes, pretty and modest girls.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[music]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The morning after Minnie went missing, a volunteer opened one of the church closets … and found Minnie’s murdered body lying on the floor inside. And when police searched the rest of the building, the last place they looked was the very top: in the belfry. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[typing on a typewriter]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Voice reading a newspaper clipping: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">They broke in the door. It was so dark they could not see, and one of them struck a match. As the light flared, they saw before them the dead body of the girl for whom they were searching. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The body of Blanche Lamont had been hidden up there for almost two weeks. Theo Durrant was immediately the prime suspect. And from the moment he was arrested, San Francisco’s mania for the “Demon of the Belfry” caught fire.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Virginia McConnell\u003c/b>\u003cb>: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">There was the undercurrent of that, that this could happen in a church if it could happen in a church. It could happen anywhere. It could happen in your home.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[music ends]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Writer Virginia McConnell used to practice law in San Francisco in the 1970s. When she moved into teaching, she also began digging into criminal histories of the past … and wound up writing a whole book on the Theo Durrant case. This murder trial had all the elements to mesmerize a willing city. It had a cast of young characters: well-spoken medical student Theo and the two attractive young women he stood accused of violently murdering with his bare hands. And this horrific double murder had taken place in a sacred space – the Emmanuel Baptist Church – which had then become these women’s tomb. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Virginia McConnell\u003c/b>\u003cb>: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">That was the horror of, you know, is not the same as if, you know, you did it down at the local bar, but you did it in a church. So where was God now? Supposedly protecting his people. What happened to these two girls? That they could not be protected? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Not only that, this reinforced all those fears that people living in a big, growing metropolis are susceptible to. That panic that their city was sinking into an unprecedented moral decay – an anxiety stoked by the newspapers that framed these crimes as the ultimate sign of San Francisco’s irredeemable rot. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[typing on a typewriter]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Voice reading a newspaper clipping: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Casting reproach upon the already too low standard of morals in that city and a cloud of shame on the good name of our beautiful State.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[music begins] \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Then \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">there was the breathless speculation about sex — scandalous, intriguing, salacious. Had Theo been romantically involved with either of the two women? Was this “gentleman,” in fact, a depraved pervert who’d habitually harassed and exposed his way through the Mission District, as was rumored?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Virginia McConnell\u003c/b>\u003cb>: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">They still have these misconceptions that Theo was luring women into the church and exposing himself. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">then \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">there was Theo’s family. Rumors of an \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">inappropriate \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">closeness between Theo, his mother, and his sister spread like wildfire. It’s hard to convey just how\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> all-consuming\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> this case was in 1895. It dominated the news, swallowing up all the oxygen, and was covered far beyond San Francisco, all across the country. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[music ends]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And as the evidence against him mounted up, Theo Durrant’s only hope was winning over the jury on the stand, which this oddly mannered young man truly failed to do. He constantly contradicted his own alibis and introduced new implausible theories about anyone else who could have murdered Blanche and Minnie rather than himself.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Virginia McConnell\u003c/b>\u003cb>: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">He did not do himself any favors by getting on the stand, but they had no other …. They had no defense for him. They had no defense.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[sounds of people talking in a courtroom]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And that’s the thing: this courtroom was packed. Because the Bay Area didn’t \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">just \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">indulge their fascination with this case through the papers. They also physically descended on the courtroom in person.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[typing on a typewriter]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Voice reading a newspaper clipping: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">So vivid were the stories, so graphic the pictures, so awful the scenes depicted that men and women leaned forward with straining eyes and hard-drawn breath, catching at every word, hypnotized by the horror of it. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The major San Francisco newspapers, including the Chronicle, competed feverishly for who could attract the most readers with stories that were melodramatic, gossipy and \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">crazy\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">-readable. And as the trial progressed, the coverage became more lurid, more outlandish, and \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">highly \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">unethical. With reporters assigning themselves the kind of \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">investigative \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">role \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">during the trial itself \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">that you might more expect from the lawyers themselves or the police.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Virginia McConnell\u003c/b>\u003cb>:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Because they knew that [the] more sensational it was, the more information they could get. They could sell newspapers. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">One newspaper printed a dramatic story about Theo going on the run and terrorizing the city:\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Virginia McConnell\u003c/b>\u003cb>:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> They were going to arrest him, and he had escaped, and he was running through people’s backyards in the Mission district.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It’s a great story! Except… it never happened.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Virginia McConnell\u003c/b>\u003cb>:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> That whole thing was fake. That was false. The newspaper had nothing else to print. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But the papers knew their readers \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">wanted \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">this. Humans have \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">always \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">wanted to gobble up true crime stories – whether in the daily paper back then or on our TV screens. Or increasingly, in our podcast feeds. \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Hello there. \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And as horribly new as this double murder seemed back in 1895, there was precedent for these kinds of famous killings.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Voice reading a newspaper clipping: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The analogy with the murderous career of Jack the Ripper in London will at once suggest itself … Is the same bloody drama to be repeated in San Francisco?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Just seven years before Theo went up to the belfry, the serial killer called “Jack the Ripper” terrorized \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">another \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">foggy city, London — in a saga that may have unfolded thousands of miles away but became a worldwide sensation thanks to the popular press. The trial of Lizzie Borden, accused of murdering her own father and stepmother with an ax in their Massachusetts home, had happened just \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">three\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> years before. \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Boston \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">had even had its own Belfry Murderer 20 years earlier — dubbed “the Bat.” So, by 1895, there \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">was \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">a \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">playbook \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">for this stuff. And as horrible as it was, for many people, this was a distraction from the grind of daily life:\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Virginia McConnell\u003c/b>\u003cb>:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> This is entertainment. Think about what the entertainment was back then. Zippo. That’s what it was. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But many onlookers in 1895 clearly \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">had difficulty \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">with the notion that a man could kill \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">just \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">for the sake of killing — not for profit or to satisfy depraved desires. Which is maybe why the \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">worst \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">legends about Theo Durrant were based around what he might have done to Blanche and Minnie’s bodies \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">after \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">their death — gruesome speculation about his “true” motive that endures to this day. It’s no coincidence that you’d have seen Theo compared to “Jekyll and Hyde” in the press — a book that was published not \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">that \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">long before the Belfry case but had already become a\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">n understood reference for a normal-looking exterior that concealed a fiendish, murdering alter-ego. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Virginia McConnell\u003c/b>\u003cb>:\u003c/b> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It’s a way, I think, of coming to terms with people who seem to be good can do bad things. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">If the idea of what a criminal does — and doesn’t — “look like” is still recognizable today … then the idea of a “perfect victim” is unfortunately just as relevant. \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Even though Theo was charged with the murders of \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">both \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Blanche and Minnie and Minnie’s killing was by far the more bloody, physically brutal one, the all-male prosecution team chose to only try him for the murder of Blanche. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Virginia McConnell\u003c/b>\u003cb>:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> There was thinking in terms of what is more appealing to an all-male jury. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Blanche was seen as an upstanding woman with a respectable profession as a teacher in training. By contrast, servant girl Minnie was a child of divorce with a patchy employment record: a \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">lower-class woman hustling solo in the Bay Area. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Virginia McConnell\u003c/b>\u003cb>:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> She was on her own. She frequently did things that back then would have been looked at askance. She went out on her own. She was frequently out, you know, after dark because she had no one to escort her. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And it was this necessary self-sufficiency in life that made Minnie ultimately less sympathetic in death — echoing wider male anxieties about the independence that women were increasingly acquiring in the shadow of a new century. \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But this wasn’t \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">even \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">the only way that the behavior of women was itself tacitly on trial alongside Theo himself. The \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">women \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">who packed out that courtroom became the subject of \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">scathing \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">commentary from the reporters who were there — some of whom, for what it’s worth, were women themselves.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[typing on a typewriter]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Voice reading a newspaper clipping: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">They were all well dressed, and they all looked like women who had someone who ought to have made them stay home.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Like several \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">modern \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">serial killers, Theo also attracted admirers – groupies, even, who sent gifts to him in jail. One of these was so infamous she even got her own name in the press: a married Oakland woman dubbed “The Sweet Pea Girl” because of the flowers she lavished upon Theo. But with women of the time shut out from many aspects of public life, it’s not hard to imagine why inserting themselves into momentous events might have held an appeal — even if it’s hard to stomach now.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In the end, it took the jury just 20 minutes to unanimously find Theo Durrant guilty of Blanche’s murder. He was taken to San Quentin State Prison, even as his parents steadfastly campaigned for their son’s release. In January 1898 — almost three years after he killed Blanche Lamont and Minnie Williams — Theo Durrant was executed by hanging age 27. On the scaffold, he gave one last speech, calling himself: \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Voice reading Theo Durrant quote: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">An innocent boy who has \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">not \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">stained his hands with crimes that have been put upon him by the press of San Francisco.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[music starts]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But after all of the scandal, all of the column inches screaming about gore and sex, it’s the figures of Blanche Lamont and Minnie Williams that should linger with us — not their killer. And it’s hard not to be left with thoughts of Minnie Williams in particular. Unlike Blanche, her death never even warranted a trial. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Virginia McConnell\u003c/b>\u003cb>:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Minnie was somewhat disposable because she really had nothing going for her. You know, that’s what was in their in their eyes. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And while Blanche’s body was sent home to Montana for a family burial, Minnie was buried in San Francisco — only to be dug up several decades later when cemeteries started moving south to make way for a growing city. Her body was shipped down to Colma with tens of thousands of others and dumped in a mass, anonymous grave. An “imperfect victim,” discarded just as much in death as she was in life.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[music stops]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Even though the Emmanuel Baptist Church swiftly resumed services, neighbors clamored for years that the building be demolished and the stain cleaned from Bartlett Street. In 1906, damage from the earthquake forced the issue. Finally, the Church and its infamous belfry were torn down — and every trace of this place was wiped from the face of San Francisco. And in a way, Theo Durrant has been too. Back then, San Francisco thought Theo could be their Jack the Ripper, the ultimate boogeyman stopped in his tracks before he truly could get started. Or, as one newspaper put it:\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Voice reading a newspaper clipping: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In the criminal history of California, there possibly has never been a fouler double murder committed than that just brought to light in San Francisco.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Theo \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">was \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">the \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">worst \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">thing the Bay Area could imagine back then. But just think of a few of the infamous serial murder cases that have stalked California and the West Coast since ‘The Demon in the Belfry.’ We’ve had the Zodiac. Ted Bundy. The Manson Family. The Night Stalker. The Golden State Killer. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Virginia McConnell\u003c/b>\u003cb>:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> He’s boring compared to them. So I think that is \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">probably the biggest thing is that it’s no longer a, you know, an anomaly. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">So this \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">may \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">be a slice of Old San Francisco that hasn’t quite kept our attention today. But even as many things have changed beyond recognition when it comes to true crime — and the way it makes us \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">act\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, makes us \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">feel\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">? Some things \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">never \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">change here.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">That was reporter Carly Severn. And with that, we blow out the candles on this Boo Curious series. Thank you for listening along. We learned that Sarah Winchester may have just been doing her best when she designed her spooky mansion. We saw how a legend, true or not, can bring a community like Hayward together. Then there was the Church of Satan — more performance art than anything truly sinister. And the Dunsmuir Estate — more of a fixer-upper than a house of horrors. As the saying goes, things are not always what they seem. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Bay Curious is made in San Francisco at member-supported KQED. The show is produced by Amanda Font, Christopher Beale, and me, Olivia Allen-Price. The vocal performers in this episode were Paul Lancour, Dan Brekke, Bianca Taylor, and Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman. Additional support for Bay Curious comes from Jen Chien, Katie Sprenger, Cesar Saldana, Maha Sanad, Holly Kernan, and the whole KQED Family. I hope you have a wonderful week and a safe and celebratory Halloween. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>"
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"content": "\u003cp>California housing authorities are demanding a host of changes to the way San Francisco approves new housing following a yearlong state review into the city’s notoriously difficult permitting process.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The California Department of Housing and Community Development \u003ca href=\"https://www.hcd.ca.gov/sites/default/files/docs/policy-and-research/plan-report/sf-housing-policy-and-practice-review.pdf\">report\u003c/a>, released Wednesday morning, concluded that delays are so baked into the city’s approval process that one person can stall or kill projects that should be allowed under state law.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The first-of-its-kind probe into San Francisco found that the city’s policies and politics stifle the construction of apartments or condos at nearly every step, driving developers to pursue business elsewhere. Under state law, HCD’s Housing Accountability Unit will now require the city to change a number of practices and rewrite city laws governing the housing permitting and appeals process.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Gov. Gavin Newsom\"]‘California’s affordability crisis is one of our own making. The decisions we made limited the creation of housing we need. Nowhere is this fact more evident than in San Francisco.’[/pullquote]The changes will make it far easier to build homes in San Francisco, said Gustavo Velasquez, director of the Department of Housing and Community Development, and far more difficult for neighbors and politicians to delay or kill projects that should be allowed under state law and existing local zoning.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“People who were born and raised in San Francisco cannot afford to stay and raise their own families,“ he said. “And why is that? Primarily because the cost of housing is exorbitant in San Francisco and the cost of housing is exorbitant simply because there just isn’t enough of it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration launched the review in August of 2021, noting that San Francisco has the longest timelines in the state for approving housing projects and among the highest housing and construction costs. The city also received the most complaints about potential violations of state housing laws of any California jurisdiction, nearly double the next city’s.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“California’s affordability crisis is one of our own making,” Newsom said in an email to KQED. “The decisions we made limited the creation of housing we need. Nowhere is this fact more evident than in San Francisco. This report is an important first step to address the decades of issues that have held back San Francisco’s ability to build more housing. City leaders have come to the table to work with us on addressing these issues and [to] implement solutions.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state’s report spells out 18 actions the city must take and a specific timeline for completing them. A series of laws passed in recent years gives state officials more power to force local jurisdictions to build.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“San Francisco takes more than 10 months longer than the next-slowest jurisdiction to give the green light to build a house. These entrenched problems have been going on for a long time,” Velasquez said. “We’re going to be watching closely what the city does next… Failure to meet [the 18 actions] in the specified timeframes will initiate a process [of enforcement that could lead to lawsuits].”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The scathing report finds that many of the city’s laws and policies are in conflict with state law and have created “major inequities across the city” — concentrating density and affordable housing in certain neighborhoods while allowing “affluent NIMBYs” to “weaponize” the process and prevent construction in their areas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Dori Ganetsos, lead project manager for the state Housing and Community Development Department's report\"]‘We just want a very clear, easy process where if you’re proposing to build what the city says you’re allowed to build, you get approval.’[/pullquote]Among the key problems identified in the 44-page report are the city’s practice of making all permitting discretionary — that is, subject to review by city officials — and allowing appeals after a project has already been approved, and its local laws that add more onerous requirements to state environmental law, and go far beyond what’s required.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those requirements allow for appeals that, even if dropped, delay projects and add costs to both developers and city taxpayers, the report states.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In both cases, the state is giving San Francisco a deadline to change those practices: It must revise laws governing the permitting process by 2026 and eliminate additional environmental requirements within one to three years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dori Ganetsos, HCD’s lead project manager on the San Francisco review, said the changes required by the report should make building far simpler.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We just want a very clear, easy process where if you’re proposing to build what the city says you’re allowed to build, you get approval,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The report was largely based on research conducted by Moira O’Neill, an associate research scientist at UC Berkeley’s Institute of Urban and Regional Development. She noted that, unlike other cities, a proposed project in San Francisco will undergo exhaustive reviews by planning officials even if it conforms to the city’s zoning and planning laws. In other cities, those types of projects are automatically approved.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The law, as it is written and as applied to the developments that I’ve showcased in this report, creates opportunity for a single project opponent to step forward and disrupt the approval pathway … even if the proposed development conforms to the local law as it is written,” O’Neill said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside label='More Housing Coverage' tag='housing']That opportunity for subjective review adds delays and risk for developers, O’Neill said. Her review found that the median time for approving multifamily housing in San Francisco was 34 months between 2018 and 2021 — up from 27 months just a few years before. That process can be dragged out further because San Francisco law allows additional time for appeals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>O’Neill said many of these local laws were written to encourage the proliferation of dense housing. But over the years, they have done the opposite.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“San Francisco actually has comparatively more land zoned for dense housing than a lot of the other jurisdictions in California I’ve studied,” she said. “So the local law is both written in a way to try to say we want to welcome people, we want to have multifamily housing, and yet it’s written in a way to make the process so onerous, so unpredictable, it effectively blocks the development of multifamily housing. And that has huge implications for how inclusive San Francisco truly can be.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But changing discretionary policies works, the report states. It cites the implementation of a 2017 state law, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11617088/housing-bills-clear-toughest-hurdle-at-state-capitol\">Senate Bill 35\u003c/a>, which required local governments to streamline approval of some projects.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Before SB 35, San Francisco approved just five affordable housing projects over three years from 2014–2017. Since it took effect, 18 were approved between 2018 and 2021, 14 of them directly because of SB 35.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Velasquez said that these numbers, and the lessons gleaned from this report and its outcomes, will help the state speed up housing production in other cities around California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A ministerial approval process is essential, to take politics, subjectivity out of the equation, out of the decision-making process. San Francisco needs to do that,” he said. “These lessons that we’re learning .… other jurisdictions will just learn from and try to apply.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The report notes that to meet its housing goals, set by state law, the city would need to build more than 10,000 housing units a year, more than half of them affordable, each year through 2031. The city’s goals call for more than 82,000 new units to be constructed by 2031.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Yet they have permitted less than one home per day in 2023,” Velasquez said. “The comparison just is egregious of what they have to approve versus what they’re approving now.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“California’s affordability crisis is one of our own making,” Newsom said in an email to KQED. “The decisions we made limited the creation of housing we need. Nowhere is this fact more evident than in San Francisco. This report is an important first step to address the decades of issues that have held back San Francisco’s ability to build more housing. City leaders have come to the table to work with us on addressing these issues and [to] implement solutions.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state’s report spells out 18 actions the city must take and a specific timeline for completing them. A series of laws passed in recent years gives state officials more power to force local jurisdictions to build.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“San Francisco takes more than 10 months longer than the next-slowest jurisdiction to give the green light to build a house. These entrenched problems have been going on for a long time,” Velasquez said. “We’re going to be watching closely what the city does next… Failure to meet [the 18 actions] in the specified timeframes will initiate a process [of enforcement that could lead to lawsuits].”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The scathing report finds that many of the city’s laws and policies are in conflict with state law and have created “major inequities across the city” — concentrating density and affordable housing in certain neighborhoods while allowing “affluent NIMBYs” to “weaponize” the process and prevent construction in their areas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Among the key problems identified in the 44-page report are the city’s practice of making all permitting discretionary — that is, subject to review by city officials — and allowing appeals after a project has already been approved, and its local laws that add more onerous requirements to state environmental law, and go far beyond what’s required.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those requirements allow for appeals that, even if dropped, delay projects and add costs to both developers and city taxpayers, the report states.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In both cases, the state is giving San Francisco a deadline to change those practices: It must revise laws governing the permitting process by 2026 and eliminate additional environmental requirements within one to three years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dori Ganetsos, HCD’s lead project manager on the San Francisco review, said the changes required by the report should make building far simpler.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We just want a very clear, easy process where if you’re proposing to build what the city says you’re allowed to build, you get approval,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The report was largely based on research conducted by Moira O’Neill, an associate research scientist at UC Berkeley’s Institute of Urban and Regional Development. She noted that, unlike other cities, a proposed project in San Francisco will undergo exhaustive reviews by planning officials even if it conforms to the city’s zoning and planning laws. In other cities, those types of projects are automatically approved.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The law, as it is written and as applied to the developments that I’ve showcased in this report, creates opportunity for a single project opponent to step forward and disrupt the approval pathway … even if the proposed development conforms to the local law as it is written,” O’Neill said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>That opportunity for subjective review adds delays and risk for developers, O’Neill said. Her review found that the median time for approving multifamily housing in San Francisco was 34 months between 2018 and 2021 — up from 27 months just a few years before. That process can be dragged out further because San Francisco law allows additional time for appeals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>O’Neill said many of these local laws were written to encourage the proliferation of dense housing. But over the years, they have done the opposite.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“San Francisco actually has comparatively more land zoned for dense housing than a lot of the other jurisdictions in California I’ve studied,” she said. “So the local law is both written in a way to try to say we want to welcome people, we want to have multifamily housing, and yet it’s written in a way to make the process so onerous, so unpredictable, it effectively blocks the development of multifamily housing. And that has huge implications for how inclusive San Francisco truly can be.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But changing discretionary policies works, the report states. It cites the implementation of a 2017 state law, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11617088/housing-bills-clear-toughest-hurdle-at-state-capitol\">Senate Bill 35\u003c/a>, which required local governments to streamline approval of some projects.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Before SB 35, San Francisco approved just five affordable housing projects over three years from 2014–2017. Since it took effect, 18 were approved between 2018 and 2021, 14 of them directly because of SB 35.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Velasquez said that these numbers, and the lessons gleaned from this report and its outcomes, will help the state speed up housing production in other cities around California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A ministerial approval process is essential, to take politics, subjectivity out of the equation, out of the decision-making process. San Francisco needs to do that,” he said. “These lessons that we’re learning .… other jurisdictions will just learn from and try to apply.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The report notes that to meet its housing goals, set by state law, the city would need to build more than 10,000 housing units a year, more than half of them affordable, each year through 2031. The city’s goals call for more than 82,000 new units to be constructed by 2031.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Yet they have permitted less than one home per day in 2023,” Velasquez said. “The comparison just is egregious of what they have to approve versus what they’re approving now.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"#correction\">This story contains a correction.\u003c/a>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Workers at LightHouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired are set to vote today, Oct. 25, on whether to form a union. \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">If successful, \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">organizers say the nonprofit would be the first organization serving people who are blind or visually impaired to unionize in the Bay Area. [pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Sheri Albers, outreach specialist, LightHouse\"]‘It’s about time. The disability community has been squashed for so, so long.’[/pullquote]\u003c/span>LightHouse workers leading the union campaign hope joining the Office and Professional Employees International Union Local 29 will improve pay equity and boost job security.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s about time. The disability community has been squashed for so, so long,” said Sheri Albers, an outreach specialist at LightHouse. “It takes a lot of strength and courage to stand up and speak out so we can be heard. This here is the vehicle to the nth degree.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11961690\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11961690 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/230914-LighthouseUnion-013-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt='A modern-looking building with the words \"Lighthouse\" written over the doorway.' width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/230914-LighthouseUnion-013-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/230914-LighthouseUnion-013-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/230914-LighthouseUnion-013-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/230914-LighthouseUnion-013-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/230914-LighthouseUnion-013-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/230914-LighthouseUnion-013-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">People pass by LightHouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired in San Francisco on Market Street on Sept. 14, 2023. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">LightHouse, which has a headquarters on Market Street in San Francisco, provides education, training, and other services for roughly 3,000 residents annually. Its roots can be traced to more than a century ago when a group of women established the Reading Room for the Blind in the basement of the San Francisco Public Library. LightHouse now has five locations across Northern California, and in 2015 it received a $125 million donation, one of the largest single gifts ever given to a blindness organization. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Many of the nonprofit’s staff are drawn in by the organization’s mission to promote independence, equality and self-reliance for people who are blind or have low vision. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote align=\"right\" size=\"medium\" citation=\"Divina Carlson, braille instructor, LightHouse\"]‘Just value the experience that we bring to the agency, and the loyalty and dedication. We want equity for our workers in terms of salary, benefits, and all the good things that unions provide.’[/pullquote]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Albers, who has retinitis pigmentosa and did not receive training around blindness until age 40, said she has invested “her entire being” into the agency she joined a few years back. She had been living in Ohio in 2019 when she heard the then-CEO of LightHouse speak at a national conference and was so enamored by “the positive blind philosophy” that she quit her job. She left her home, family, and friends, determined to work at LightHouse. Six months later, she was working at LightHouse. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Albers said the organization has changed dramatically since then, and she’s seen too many talented staff let go or leave for better positions elsewhere.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“If I were let go today, I don’t know when and where and how easy it would be for me to get another job,” Albers said. “And I’ve worked hard to get where I am. To know that just at will, I could be let go? That scares me a lot because I’ve seen it happen.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.americanprogress.org/article/removing-obstacles-for-disabled-workers-would-strengthen-the-u-s-labor-market/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Layoffs can hit people with disabilities particularly hard.\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> During the mass layoffs felt during the start of the pandemic, \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/05/nyregion/workers-disabilities-unemployment-covid.html\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">people with disabilities represented a disproportionate share\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> of people who lost their jobs. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those concerns about job stability and the organization’s future led LightHouse staff to seek voluntary recognition from management in September, writing in a letter to Chief Executive Director Sharon Giovinazzo that unionizing would allow staff a voice in shaping the organization’s policies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside label=\"Related Stories\" postID=\"news_11964236,news_11961743,news_11963717\"]\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“We believe that all LightHouse employees — from factory workers to executive leadership — should receive equal treatment,” the letter reads. “Today, we reflect upon the words of Helen Keller, who wrote, ‘Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.’ Together, we are claiming our collective voice and exercising our legal right to unionize and create a LightHouse, United.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a written statement, Giovinazzo, who became CEO of LightHouse last October, said she is committed to honoring the results of the union election.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I have been actively engaged in measures to reinvigorate our workforce and chart a new trajectory that will secure a robust and sustainable future for LightHouse,” Giovinazzo said. “I can assure you that these measures have and will continue to reflect my commitment to social justice and workers’ rights.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In addition to job security, workers also want to see more pay equity and compensation that rewards longevity within the organization.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Divina Carlson, a braille teacher, has worked at LightHouse for the last three decades. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Just value the experience that we bring to the agency and the loyalty and dedication,” Carlson said. “We want equity for our workers in terms of salary, benefits, and all the good things that unions provide.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11965168\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11965168\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/230914-LighthouseUnion-003-BL-qut.jpg\" alt=\"An Asian woman with short hair stands in front of a building wearing a LIGHTHOUSE shirt, looking to the side away from the camera.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/230914-LighthouseUnion-003-BL-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/230914-LighthouseUnion-003-BL-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/230914-LighthouseUnion-003-BL-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/230914-LighthouseUnion-003-BL-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/230914-LighthouseUnion-003-BL-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Divina Carlson, a braille instructor, stands outside LightHouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired on Market Street in San Francisco on Sept. 14, 2023. Carlson and fellow employees are working to form a union at the organization. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Several other mission-driven nonprofits in the Bay Area have unionized over the last two years, including Compass Family Services and the Glide Foundation in San Francisco. Workers at the Alameda County Community Food Bank also announced their move to unionize earlier this month. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Frank Welte, a senior Accessible Media and Braille Specialist at LightHouse, said unionizing at an agency with so many blind employees and blind people in leadership positions sends a powerful message to other workplaces.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It emphasizes and affirms the fundamental equality of people who are blind with people who are sighted in whatever level we are in,” Welte said. “I think that sets a wonderful example throughout the country that this is how things can be.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ca id=\"correction\">\u003c/a>October 25: An earlier version of this story included the incorrect date for the vote on unionizing. This story has been edited to correct the inaccuracy.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"#correction\">This story contains a correction.\u003c/a>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Workers at LightHouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired are set to vote today, Oct. 25, on whether to form a union. \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">If successful, \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">organizers say the nonprofit would be the first organization serving people who are blind or visually impaired to unionize in the Bay Area. \u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/span>LightHouse workers leading the union campaign hope joining the Office and Professional Employees International Union Local 29 will improve pay equity and boost job security.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s about time. The disability community has been squashed for so, so long,” said Sheri Albers, an outreach specialist at LightHouse. “It takes a lot of strength and courage to stand up and speak out so we can be heard. This here is the vehicle to the nth degree.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11961690\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11961690 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/230914-LighthouseUnion-013-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt='A modern-looking building with the words \"Lighthouse\" written over the doorway.' width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/230914-LighthouseUnion-013-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/230914-LighthouseUnion-013-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/230914-LighthouseUnion-013-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/230914-LighthouseUnion-013-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/230914-LighthouseUnion-013-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/230914-LighthouseUnion-013-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">People pass by LightHouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired in San Francisco on Market Street on Sept. 14, 2023. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">LightHouse, which has a headquarters on Market Street in San Francisco, provides education, training, and other services for roughly 3,000 residents annually. Its roots can be traced to more than a century ago when a group of women established the Reading Room for the Blind in the basement of the San Francisco Public Library. LightHouse now has five locations across Northern California, and in 2015 it received a $125 million donation, one of the largest single gifts ever given to a blindness organization. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Many of the nonprofit’s staff are drawn in by the organization’s mission to promote independence, equality and self-reliance for people who are blind or have low vision. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Albers, who has retinitis pigmentosa and did not receive training around blindness until age 40, said she has invested “her entire being” into the agency she joined a few years back. She had been living in Ohio in 2019 when she heard the then-CEO of LightHouse speak at a national conference and was so enamored by “the positive blind philosophy” that she quit her job. She left her home, family, and friends, determined to work at LightHouse. Six months later, she was working at LightHouse. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Albers said the organization has changed dramatically since then, and she’s seen too many talented staff let go or leave for better positions elsewhere.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“If I were let go today, I don’t know when and where and how easy it would be for me to get another job,” Albers said. “And I’ve worked hard to get where I am. To know that just at will, I could be let go? That scares me a lot because I’ve seen it happen.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“We believe that all LightHouse employees — from factory workers to executive leadership — should receive equal treatment,” the letter reads. “Today, we reflect upon the words of Helen Keller, who wrote, ‘Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.’ Together, we are claiming our collective voice and exercising our legal right to unionize and create a LightHouse, United.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a written statement, Giovinazzo, who became CEO of LightHouse last October, said she is committed to honoring the results of the union election.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I have been actively engaged in measures to reinvigorate our workforce and chart a new trajectory that will secure a robust and sustainable future for LightHouse,” Giovinazzo said. “I can assure you that these measures have and will continue to reflect my commitment to social justice and workers’ rights.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In addition to job security, workers also want to see more pay equity and compensation that rewards longevity within the organization.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Divina Carlson, a braille teacher, has worked at LightHouse for the last three decades. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Just value the experience that we bring to the agency and the loyalty and dedication,” Carlson said. “We want equity for our workers in terms of salary, benefits, and all the good things that unions provide.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11965168\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11965168\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/230914-LighthouseUnion-003-BL-qut.jpg\" alt=\"An Asian woman with short hair stands in front of a building wearing a LIGHTHOUSE shirt, looking to the side away from the camera.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/230914-LighthouseUnion-003-BL-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/230914-LighthouseUnion-003-BL-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/230914-LighthouseUnion-003-BL-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/230914-LighthouseUnion-003-BL-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/230914-LighthouseUnion-003-BL-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Divina Carlson, a braille instructor, stands outside LightHouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired on Market Street in San Francisco on Sept. 14, 2023. Carlson and fellow employees are working to form a union at the organization. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Several other mission-driven nonprofits in the Bay Area have unionized over the last two years, including Compass Family Services and the Glide Foundation in San Francisco. Workers at the Alameda County Community Food Bank also announced their move to unionize earlier this month. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Frank Welte, a senior Accessible Media and Braille Specialist at LightHouse, said unionizing at an agency with so many blind employees and blind people in leadership positions sends a powerful message to other workplaces.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It emphasizes and affirms the fundamental equality of people who are blind with people who are sighted in whatever level we are in,” Welte said. “I think that sets a wonderful example throughout the country that this is how things can be.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ca id=\"correction\">\u003c/a>October 25: An earlier version of this story included the incorrect date for the vote on unionizing. This story has been edited to correct the inaccuracy.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "san-francisco-rv-community-fears-new-parking-rules-could-push-them-closer-to-homelessness",
"title": "San Francisco RV Community Fears New Parking Rules Could Push Them Closer to Homelessness",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>Updated 11:05 a.m. Tuesday\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kiko Suarez struggled to afford living in the Bay Area until he got a decent deal on an RV. Since making it his home in January, the carpenter has slowly found his footing again, working construction jobs in San Jose.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But, after months of parking his vehicle on Winston Drive behind Stonestown Mall in southwest San Francisco, Suarez could soon be forced out of the area and the community he’s helped build.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The city plans to impose new four-hour parking restrictions on the street where he and dozens of other families park their RVs starting Dec. 19.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m not going to be able to deal with that, not with my schedule,” Suarez told KQED. “I don’t know where I will go or where I will park it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are currently few parking restrictions on the strip of Winston Drive, where Suarez and the other families park, except for weekly street cleanings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Starting Dec. 19, however, the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency will enforce four-hour parking between Lake Merced Boulevard and Buckingham Way from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday to Friday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>People who don’t move their cars will be issued a $92 ticket.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11965071\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11965071\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/231017-LakeMercedRVs-009-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"Hands leaf through a binder filled with tickets.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/231017-LakeMercedRVs-009-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/231017-LakeMercedRVs-009-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/231017-LakeMercedRVs-009-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/231017-LakeMercedRVs-009-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/231017-LakeMercedRVs-009-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/231017-LakeMercedRVs-009-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Resident Kiko Suarez displays all of the SFMTA parking tickets he’s received while living in his RV on Winston Drive. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Earlier this year, SFMTA proposed the daytime parking limits at the request of Supervisor Myrna Melgar, according to the transit agency, “to make Winston Drive safer for pedestrians and cyclists who currently navigate the sidewalks and bike lane to travel between Lowell High School, SF State, Lake Merced, and the Stonestown shopping center,” SFMTA spokesperson Erica Kato told KQED in an email.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The changes, approved at a \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfmta.com/calendar/board-directors-meeting-september-19-2023\">Sept. 19 SFMTA Board meeting\u003c/a>, are also intended to open up parking for nearby San Francisco State University staff, students and visitors and to make way for a \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfmta.com/projects/lake-merced-quick-build-project\">traffic improvement project\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But several people living in the RVs say they will have nowhere to go and have been pushing the city to create a space where they could safely park, similar to the vehicle triage center that was set up in the Bayview during the pandemic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Jessica Coello, Winston Drive RV resident\"]‘We aren’t going to have a safe place to go, and we’ll get a lot of tickets. If we get a lot of tickets, they’ll tow the RVs, and we won’t have anywhere to live.’[/pullquote]The city is considering at least two contenders for a safe parking location for RVs. But there are no plans to open such a site before the parking restrictions go into effect.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Despite assessing dozens of sites over the past two years, we have been unable to identify a suitable property for this service,” Emily Cohen, deputy director for communications and legislative affairs at the city’s Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing, said in an email to KQED. “We are not giving up on the goal of opening a westside safe parking program.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Supervisor Melgar declined to comment on this story.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the meantime, HSH has been meeting with the RV residents to connect people with housing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>HSH said it is actively in contact with about 70 households living in vehicles on Winston. Of those, 20 are families with children that have been offered short-term and long-term housing vouchers, according to Cohen.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Around 20 people living in vehicles in that area have already moved into their new short- or long-term housing offer. Dozens more are enrolled in the city’s shelter system, waiting for referrals to go through.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We are actively working with these households to move them into long-term housing,” Cohen said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But there are still many people living in the area who don’t have any housing lined up or a place to move their RV come December.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside label='More Housing Coverage' tag='housing']Finding temporary shelter in the interim won’t be easy. As of Oct. 23, there were \u003ca href=\"https://hsh.sfgov.org/services/how-to-get-services/accessing-temporary-shelter/adult-temporary-shelter/shelter-reservation-waitlist/\">377 people on the waiting list for emergency shelter in San Francisco\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With the clock now ticking, advocates for unhoused people say the city must find a solution quickly so no residents are ticketed, towed, or forced to abandon their vehicles and live on the street.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The families on Winston Drive and Buckingham Way deserve dignity and safety, including a safe parking site and access to permanent housing,” Eleana Binder, policy manager for the homeless services nonprofit Glide, said in a written statement. “Implementing the parking restrictions without options will push them deeper into instability and homelessness.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>People like Suarez say it will be impossible to move their vehicle every four hours while at work, so they’ll have to find a new place to park to avoid the $92 parking tickets. For him, a single parking ticket is nearly half of this daily $220 paycheck.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>SFMTA also noted it has payment plans for tickets, community service alternatives and \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfmta.com/discounts-people-experiencing-homelessness\">discounts for people experiencing homelessness\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11965072\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11965072\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/231017-LakeMercedRVs-015-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A person with long hair in a bun puts something under the wheel of an RV.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/231017-LakeMercedRVs-015-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/231017-LakeMercedRVs-015-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/231017-LakeMercedRVs-015-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/231017-LakeMercedRVs-015-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/231017-LakeMercedRVs-015-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/231017-LakeMercedRVs-015-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jessica Coello puts a wedge under the front tire of her RV after moving it for street sweeping on Winston Drive in San Francisco on Oct. 17, 2023. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Others said they have no other option but to try to stay and move their vehicle when they can.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jessica Coello has lived on Winston Drive for about a year with her two kids, ages 15 and 17, who go to high school in the city. Like many of her neighbors, she started living on Winston during the pandemic after she lost work. It was cheaper than paying rent and has allowed her to save up some money for her kids’ college education.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We aren’t going to have a safe place to go, and we’ll get a lot of tickets,” she told KQED about her fears looking ahead. “If we get a lot of tickets, they’ll tow the RVs, and we won’t have anywhere to live.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Coello, who works in childcare and housekeeping, has struggled to find regular work after the pandemic. But she wants to stay close to her children’s school so they can graduate on time. She feels lost without options.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They don’t accept RVs anywhere. Either they are too close to the houses, and people there don’t want RVs near, or we are on the streets, and they can’t stay there,” she told KQED. “If you put restrictions, we’ll be homeless. It will be an even worse situation for us.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11965419\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/231024-LakeMercedRVPresser-003-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A group of people stand together holding signs in an outdoor setting.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11965419\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/231024-LakeMercedRVPresser-003-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/231024-LakeMercedRVPresser-003-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/231024-LakeMercedRVPresser-003-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/231024-LakeMercedRVPresser-003-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/231024-LakeMercedRVPresser-003-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/231024-LakeMercedRVPresser-003-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Residents chant during a rally calling on San Francisco to provide safe parking sites and housing for families living in RVs near San Francisco State University at risk of eviction on Winston Drive on Oct. 24, 2023. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Joshua Hernandez, 21, moved to an RV on Winston Drive with his girlfriend just three months ago, after it got too expensive to continue renting their apartment in Daly City. He’s working as a plumber and his girlfriend is taking classes at Skyline Community College. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Even if we worked long days everyday, it wasn’t enough to pay our bills and still go to college. So we moved here. And it feels way better now, we can save for our future,” he told KQED outside a rally on Tuesday morning where families living in RVs were demanding the city find a safe parking site before the new rules kick in. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For many of the families parked next to him, Suarez said, the new parking limits will “pretty much force everyone out.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Suarez hopes he’s wrong.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I know people are fed up with homelessness, but what else are we supposed to do?” Suarez said. “The government needs to listen and do what’s appropriate. That’s all I hope for.”\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "New parking limits aim to clear a street of RVs near San Francisco State University and Lowell High School. But families living in vehicles there fear they have nowhere to go.",
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"title": "San Francisco RV Community Fears New Parking Rules Could Push Them Closer to Homelessness | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>Updated 11:05 a.m. Tuesday\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kiko Suarez struggled to afford living in the Bay Area until he got a decent deal on an RV. Since making it his home in January, the carpenter has slowly found his footing again, working construction jobs in San Jose.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But, after months of parking his vehicle on Winston Drive behind Stonestown Mall in southwest San Francisco, Suarez could soon be forced out of the area and the community he’s helped build.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The city plans to impose new four-hour parking restrictions on the street where he and dozens of other families park their RVs starting Dec. 19.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m not going to be able to deal with that, not with my schedule,” Suarez told KQED. “I don’t know where I will go or where I will park it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are currently few parking restrictions on the strip of Winston Drive, where Suarez and the other families park, except for weekly street cleanings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Starting Dec. 19, however, the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency will enforce four-hour parking between Lake Merced Boulevard and Buckingham Way from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday to Friday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>People who don’t move their cars will be issued a $92 ticket.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11965071\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11965071\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/231017-LakeMercedRVs-009-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"Hands leaf through a binder filled with tickets.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/231017-LakeMercedRVs-009-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/231017-LakeMercedRVs-009-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/231017-LakeMercedRVs-009-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/231017-LakeMercedRVs-009-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/231017-LakeMercedRVs-009-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/231017-LakeMercedRVs-009-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Resident Kiko Suarez displays all of the SFMTA parking tickets he’s received while living in his RV on Winston Drive. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Earlier this year, SFMTA proposed the daytime parking limits at the request of Supervisor Myrna Melgar, according to the transit agency, “to make Winston Drive safer for pedestrians and cyclists who currently navigate the sidewalks and bike lane to travel between Lowell High School, SF State, Lake Merced, and the Stonestown shopping center,” SFMTA spokesperson Erica Kato told KQED in an email.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The changes, approved at a \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfmta.com/calendar/board-directors-meeting-september-19-2023\">Sept. 19 SFMTA Board meeting\u003c/a>, are also intended to open up parking for nearby San Francisco State University staff, students and visitors and to make way for a \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfmta.com/projects/lake-merced-quick-build-project\">traffic improvement project\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But several people living in the RVs say they will have nowhere to go and have been pushing the city to create a space where they could safely park, similar to the vehicle triage center that was set up in the Bayview during the pandemic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "‘We aren’t going to have a safe place to go, and we’ll get a lot of tickets. If we get a lot of tickets, they’ll tow the RVs, and we won’t have anywhere to live.’",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>The city is considering at least two contenders for a safe parking location for RVs. But there are no plans to open such a site before the parking restrictions go into effect.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Despite assessing dozens of sites over the past two years, we have been unable to identify a suitable property for this service,” Emily Cohen, deputy director for communications and legislative affairs at the city’s Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing, said in an email to KQED. “We are not giving up on the goal of opening a westside safe parking program.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Supervisor Melgar declined to comment on this story.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the meantime, HSH has been meeting with the RV residents to connect people with housing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>HSH said it is actively in contact with about 70 households living in vehicles on Winston. Of those, 20 are families with children that have been offered short-term and long-term housing vouchers, according to Cohen.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Around 20 people living in vehicles in that area have already moved into their new short- or long-term housing offer. Dozens more are enrolled in the city’s shelter system, waiting for referrals to go through.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We are actively working with these households to move them into long-term housing,” Cohen said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But there are still many people living in the area who don’t have any housing lined up or a place to move their RV come December.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Finding temporary shelter in the interim won’t be easy. As of Oct. 23, there were \u003ca href=\"https://hsh.sfgov.org/services/how-to-get-services/accessing-temporary-shelter/adult-temporary-shelter/shelter-reservation-waitlist/\">377 people on the waiting list for emergency shelter in San Francisco\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With the clock now ticking, advocates for unhoused people say the city must find a solution quickly so no residents are ticketed, towed, or forced to abandon their vehicles and live on the street.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The families on Winston Drive and Buckingham Way deserve dignity and safety, including a safe parking site and access to permanent housing,” Eleana Binder, policy manager for the homeless services nonprofit Glide, said in a written statement. “Implementing the parking restrictions without options will push them deeper into instability and homelessness.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>People like Suarez say it will be impossible to move their vehicle every four hours while at work, so they’ll have to find a new place to park to avoid the $92 parking tickets. For him, a single parking ticket is nearly half of this daily $220 paycheck.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>SFMTA also noted it has payment plans for tickets, community service alternatives and \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfmta.com/discounts-people-experiencing-homelessness\">discounts for people experiencing homelessness\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11965072\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11965072\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/231017-LakeMercedRVs-015-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A person with long hair in a bun puts something under the wheel of an RV.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/231017-LakeMercedRVs-015-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/231017-LakeMercedRVs-015-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/231017-LakeMercedRVs-015-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/231017-LakeMercedRVs-015-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/231017-LakeMercedRVs-015-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/231017-LakeMercedRVs-015-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jessica Coello puts a wedge under the front tire of her RV after moving it for street sweeping on Winston Drive in San Francisco on Oct. 17, 2023. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Others said they have no other option but to try to stay and move their vehicle when they can.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jessica Coello has lived on Winston Drive for about a year with her two kids, ages 15 and 17, who go to high school in the city. Like many of her neighbors, she started living on Winston during the pandemic after she lost work. It was cheaper than paying rent and has allowed her to save up some money for her kids’ college education.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We aren’t going to have a safe place to go, and we’ll get a lot of tickets,” she told KQED about her fears looking ahead. “If we get a lot of tickets, they’ll tow the RVs, and we won’t have anywhere to live.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Coello, who works in childcare and housekeeping, has struggled to find regular work after the pandemic. But she wants to stay close to her children’s school so they can graduate on time. She feels lost without options.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They don’t accept RVs anywhere. Either they are too close to the houses, and people there don’t want RVs near, or we are on the streets, and they can’t stay there,” she told KQED. “If you put restrictions, we’ll be homeless. It will be an even worse situation for us.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11965419\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/231024-LakeMercedRVPresser-003-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A group of people stand together holding signs in an outdoor setting.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11965419\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/231024-LakeMercedRVPresser-003-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/231024-LakeMercedRVPresser-003-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/231024-LakeMercedRVPresser-003-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/231024-LakeMercedRVPresser-003-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/231024-LakeMercedRVPresser-003-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/231024-LakeMercedRVPresser-003-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Residents chant during a rally calling on San Francisco to provide safe parking sites and housing for families living in RVs near San Francisco State University at risk of eviction on Winston Drive on Oct. 24, 2023. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Joshua Hernandez, 21, moved to an RV on Winston Drive with his girlfriend just three months ago, after it got too expensive to continue renting their apartment in Daly City. He’s working as a plumber and his girlfriend is taking classes at Skyline Community College. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Even if we worked long days everyday, it wasn’t enough to pay our bills and still go to college. So we moved here. And it feels way better now, we can save for our future,” he told KQED outside a rally on Tuesday morning where families living in RVs were demanding the city find a safe parking site before the new rules kick in. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For many of the families parked next to him, Suarez said, the new parking limits will “pretty much force everyone out.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Suarez hopes he’s wrong.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I know people are fed up with homelessness, but what else are we supposed to do?” Suarez said. “The government needs to listen and do what’s appropriate. That’s all I hope for.”\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>San Francisco’s homelessness department is hoping to move more people who are living on the street into the city’s hundreds of vacant city-subsidized housing units.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Officials on Wednesday announced a plan where people living on the street can move into available units before completing necessary paperwork proving their eligibility, which can often stall the housing placement process or deter people altogether.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Somebody can move from living unsheltered on the streets and in two hours be home,” Emily Cohen, deputy director for communications and legislative affairs at the Dept. of Homelessness and Supportive Housing (HSH), told reporters at a press conference Wednesday. “The homeless outreach team is out on the street. They are identifying people who are already prioritized for housing but don’t have their documents together at all yet.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2022, San Francisco had an estimated 7,754 people experiencing homelessness, a 3.5% decrease from the last point-in-time count in 2019, according to city data. More than 4,000 of those counted were unsheltered, meaning they didn’t have access to any temporary shelter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Shireen McSpadden, executive director, Dept. of Homelessness and Supportive Housing\"]‘This is a real opportunity for us to move people directly off the street and into housing.’[/pullquote]Meanwhile, reports have also shown that \u003ca href=\"https://www.propublica.org/article/in-san-francisco-hundreds-of-homes-for-the-homeless-sit-vacant\">hundreds of the city’s permanent supportive housing units may sit vacant on any given day\u003c/a>. Advocates for unhoused San Franciscans have criticized the stark contrast between the volume of vacant units and the city’s well-documented need for housing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>San Francisco’s vacancy rate for units that are eligible for the rapid housing program is currently at around 9.5%, or around 1,000 units, according to Chris Block, housing placement manager at HSH. Only about a third of those units are immediately available, he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is a real opportunity for us to move people directly off the street and into housing,” said Shireen McSpadden, executive director of HSH. “It really helps with our vacancy rate in permanent supportive housing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The city’s main housing pipeline will continue to function as-is. That program, \u003ca href=\"https://hsh.sfgov.org/services/the-homelessness-response-system/coordinated-entry/\">called Coordinated Entry\u003c/a>, is used to assess someone’s needs and prioritize their placement for limited subsidized housing slots.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This new effort comes after San Francisco and other cities in California opened up hotels for people experiencing homelessness during the pandemic and were able to rapidly house thousands of people by reducing some bureaucratic barriers before moving them in, Cohen said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11963502\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11963502\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/004_SanFrancisco_AbigailHotel_10222021-qut.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/004_SanFrancisco_AbigailHotel_10222021-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/004_SanFrancisco_AbigailHotel_10222021-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/004_SanFrancisco_AbigailHotel_10222021-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/004_SanFrancisco_AbigailHotel_10222021-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/004_SanFrancisco_AbigailHotel_10222021-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Shireen McSpadden, director of the Dept. of Homelessness and Supportive Housing, sits in a newly renovated room at the Abigail Hotel in San Francisco on Oct. 22, 2021. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The city has already started using the so-called “presumptive eligibility” approach and housed seven people in September, Block said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The approach focuses on people who are engaged with social services but may not have all their necessary documents to show they qualify for housing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>HSH is currently using the approach for vacant units funded directly by the city. Cohen said that her department has requested permission from federal officials to use the same process for some federally funded housing sites.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Although the city sheltered thousands of people through short-term pandemic relief programs, San Francisco still has a higher portion of its unhoused population living outdoors compared to cities such as San José, Long Beach, Denver, Boston and Washington, D.C., \u003ca href=\"https://sf.gov/sites/default/files/2023-07/2023%20Homelessness%20Benchmarking%20Report.pdf\">according to a 2023 report from the city’s controller (PDF)\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In addition, more than 340 people were on \u003ca href=\"https://hsh.sfgov.org/services/how-to-get-services/accessing-temporary-shelter/adult-temporary-shelter/shelter-reservation-waitlist/\">the city’s waiting list for temporary shelter\u003c/a> as of Wednesday morning.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside label='More Housing Stories' tag='housing']Cohen said that the new approach would not be a “silver bullet” to the city’s homelessness crisis, but a way to make it easier and faster for people to move into available units.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://hsh.sfgov.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Home-by-the-Bay-Single_Page-Layout.pdf\">city’s strategic plan (PDF)\u003c/a> aims to cut unsheltered homelessness in half and total homelessness by 15% by June 2028. To get there, the city still needs at least 3,250 units of permanent supportive housing, 1,075 shelter beds, and services to prevent homelessness for more than 4,000 households, the plan reads.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Efforts to more quickly move people into housing come as \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11960279/where-things-stand-in-san-franciscos-legal-battle-over-street-encampments\">San Francisco is fighting a lawsuit over how it responds to street homelessness\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In September 2022, the Coalition on Homelessness sued the city for allegedly failing to adhere to its own policies around how to clear tent encampments on sidewalks, arguing that personal belongings were repeatedly thrown away and people were not first offered shelter. A judge has since banned San Francisco from sweeping homeless encampments unless it followed those policies. \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11960279/where-things-stand-in-san-franciscos-legal-battle-over-street-encampments\">The city is now appealing the judge’s temporary order\u003c/a> while the broader lawsuit is under review.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This was the natural next step,” to furthering some of the city’s housing goals, said Cohen. “We are going to presume you meet the needs in eligibility for this housing based on everything we know about you, and we’ll worry about the paperwork later.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>San Francisco’s homelessness department is hoping to move more people who are living on the street into the city’s hundreds of vacant city-subsidized housing units.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Officials on Wednesday announced a plan where people living on the street can move into available units before completing necessary paperwork proving their eligibility, which can often stall the housing placement process or deter people altogether.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Somebody can move from living unsheltered on the streets and in two hours be home,” Emily Cohen, deputy director for communications and legislative affairs at the Dept. of Homelessness and Supportive Housing (HSH), told reporters at a press conference Wednesday. “The homeless outreach team is out on the street. They are identifying people who are already prioritized for housing but don’t have their documents together at all yet.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2022, San Francisco had an estimated 7,754 people experiencing homelessness, a 3.5% decrease from the last point-in-time count in 2019, according to city data. More than 4,000 of those counted were unsheltered, meaning they didn’t have access to any temporary shelter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Meanwhile, reports have also shown that \u003ca href=\"https://www.propublica.org/article/in-san-francisco-hundreds-of-homes-for-the-homeless-sit-vacant\">hundreds of the city’s permanent supportive housing units may sit vacant on any given day\u003c/a>. Advocates for unhoused San Franciscans have criticized the stark contrast between the volume of vacant units and the city’s well-documented need for housing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>San Francisco’s vacancy rate for units that are eligible for the rapid housing program is currently at around 9.5%, or around 1,000 units, according to Chris Block, housing placement manager at HSH. Only about a third of those units are immediately available, he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is a real opportunity for us to move people directly off the street and into housing,” said Shireen McSpadden, executive director of HSH. “It really helps with our vacancy rate in permanent supportive housing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The city’s main housing pipeline will continue to function as-is. That program, \u003ca href=\"https://hsh.sfgov.org/services/the-homelessness-response-system/coordinated-entry/\">called Coordinated Entry\u003c/a>, is used to assess someone’s needs and prioritize their placement for limited subsidized housing slots.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This new effort comes after San Francisco and other cities in California opened up hotels for people experiencing homelessness during the pandemic and were able to rapidly house thousands of people by reducing some bureaucratic barriers before moving them in, Cohen said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11963502\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11963502\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/004_SanFrancisco_AbigailHotel_10222021-qut.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/004_SanFrancisco_AbigailHotel_10222021-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/004_SanFrancisco_AbigailHotel_10222021-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/004_SanFrancisco_AbigailHotel_10222021-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/004_SanFrancisco_AbigailHotel_10222021-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/004_SanFrancisco_AbigailHotel_10222021-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Shireen McSpadden, director of the Dept. of Homelessness and Supportive Housing, sits in a newly renovated room at the Abigail Hotel in San Francisco on Oct. 22, 2021. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The city has already started using the so-called “presumptive eligibility” approach and housed seven people in September, Block said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The approach focuses on people who are engaged with social services but may not have all their necessary documents to show they qualify for housing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>HSH is currently using the approach for vacant units funded directly by the city. Cohen said that her department has requested permission from federal officials to use the same process for some federally funded housing sites.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Although the city sheltered thousands of people through short-term pandemic relief programs, San Francisco still has a higher portion of its unhoused population living outdoors compared to cities such as San José, Long Beach, Denver, Boston and Washington, D.C., \u003ca href=\"https://sf.gov/sites/default/files/2023-07/2023%20Homelessness%20Benchmarking%20Report.pdf\">according to a 2023 report from the city’s controller (PDF)\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In addition, more than 340 people were on \u003ca href=\"https://hsh.sfgov.org/services/how-to-get-services/accessing-temporary-shelter/adult-temporary-shelter/shelter-reservation-waitlist/\">the city’s waiting list for temporary shelter\u003c/a> as of Wednesday morning.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Cohen said that the new approach would not be a “silver bullet” to the city’s homelessness crisis, but a way to make it easier and faster for people to move into available units.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://hsh.sfgov.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Home-by-the-Bay-Single_Page-Layout.pdf\">city’s strategic plan (PDF)\u003c/a> aims to cut unsheltered homelessness in half and total homelessness by 15% by June 2028. To get there, the city still needs at least 3,250 units of permanent supportive housing, 1,075 shelter beds, and services to prevent homelessness for more than 4,000 households, the plan reads.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Efforts to more quickly move people into housing come as \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11960279/where-things-stand-in-san-franciscos-legal-battle-over-street-encampments\">San Francisco is fighting a lawsuit over how it responds to street homelessness\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In September 2022, the Coalition on Homelessness sued the city for allegedly failing to adhere to its own policies around how to clear tent encampments on sidewalks, arguing that personal belongings were repeatedly thrown away and people were not first offered shelter. A judge has since banned San Francisco from sweeping homeless encampments unless it followed those policies. \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11960279/where-things-stand-in-san-franciscos-legal-battle-over-street-encampments\">The city is now appealing the judge’s temporary order\u003c/a> while the broader lawsuit is under review.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This was the natural next step,” to furthering some of the city’s housing goals, said Cohen. “We are going to presume you meet the needs in eligibility for this housing based on everything we know about you, and we’ll worry about the paperwork later.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Hundreds Honor Dianne Feinstein as She Lies in State at SF City Hall",
"headTitle": "Hundreds Honor Dianne Feinstein as She Lies in State at SF City Hall | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>San Franciscans paid their respects starting early Wednesday morning to honor the late U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein, who \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11946670/dianne-feinstein-californias-longest-serving-us-senator-dies-at-age-90\">died last week at age 90\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Outside City Hall, a large American flag hung beside two city fire trucks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fire Chief Jeanine Nicholson noted that as mayor, Feinstein had a special relationship with the San Francisco Fire Department.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“She loved the fire department. She carried a helmet and a turnout coat wherever she went,” Nicholson said. “She said that she called for a third alarm one time at a fire she pulled up to, and I believe it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nicholson wasn’t in the department at the time, but she said, as mayor, Feinstein was pivotal in recruiting more female firefighters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The first five women in the fire department that came in 1987 — they were nicknamed ‘Feinstein’s finest.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11963468\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/20231004-Feinstein-Lying-in-State-051-JY-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A long line of people snakes through an ornate building.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11963468\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/20231004-Feinstein-Lying-in-State-051-JY-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/20231004-Feinstein-Lying-in-State-051-JY-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/20231004-Feinstein-Lying-in-State-051-JY-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/20231004-Feinstein-Lying-in-State-051-JY-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/20231004-Feinstein-Lying-in-State-051-JY-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/20231004-Feinstein-Lying-in-State-051-JY-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Visitors stand in line to pay their respects to Sen. Dianne Feinstein as her body lies in state at City Hall in San Francisco on Wednesday. \u003ccite>(Juliana Yamada/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>A steady stream of mourners filed past a flag-draped coffin holding Feinstein’s body inside the City Hall rotunda, as a string quartet played on the grand staircase. Erica Moreno of Sacramento brought her three daughters along to honor Feinstein.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I would like my daughters to know that she was a trailblazer and that when you have tenacity, big dreams and willingness, you can accomplish all,” Moreno said. “She was an excellent role model.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Andrew Xia, 27, wasn’t born when Feinstein was mayor, but he appreciates her accomplishments in her long political career.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I just remember that her long Senate career especially, and her contributions to San Francisco when she was mayor, in terms of gay rights, in terms of transit, a lot of it really impacts all of us, even in the present day,” Xia said. “Without her, I don’t think we’d have cable cars or the street cars today.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11963465\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/231004-FeinsteinLieinState-027-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"People write at a table in front of a picture of a person with their arms raised.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11963465\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/231004-FeinsteinLieinState-027-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/231004-FeinsteinLieinState-027-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/231004-FeinsteinLieinState-027-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/231004-FeinsteinLieinState-027-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/231004-FeinsteinLieinState-027-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/231004-FeinsteinLieinState-027-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mourners write notes and leave flowers as Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s body lies in state at City Hall in San Francisco on Wednesday. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Some who turned out worked for Feinstein as staff members or, in the case of Dick Morten, a business leader during her tenure in City Hall.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I was at the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce and the vice president for public affairs, and we worked together on a number of programs and other times we opposed each other. But she was always very gracious and a good friend during that time,” Morten said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside label='Related Stories' tag='dianne-feinstein']A tragedy ushered Feinstein into the mayor’s office in 1978. As president of the Board of Supervisors, she announced the news that Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk had been shot and killed. Feinstein, along with Barbara Boxer, would later go on to make history, as California’s first women elected to the Senate in 1992, in what was known as the Year of the Woman, following the controversial Senate confirmation hearing for Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite her groundbreaking achievements over more than five decades in public office, Feinstein was sometimes criticized as being too conservative, or for staying in office too long.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>None of that matters to Paula Farmer, who came to pay her respects.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s just been an amazing run. And no matter the conflict that people have had with her last years, I think that the work that she did outweighed all of that,” Farmer said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11963464\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/231004-FeinsteinLieinState-015-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A person with long hair cries in front of a casket draped in an American flag.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11963464\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/231004-FeinsteinLieinState-015-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/231004-FeinsteinLieinState-015-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/231004-FeinsteinLieinState-015-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/231004-FeinsteinLieinState-015-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/231004-FeinsteinLieinState-015-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/231004-FeinsteinLieinState-015-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">House Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi holds her hands to her face as she pays respect to Sen. Dianne Feinstein as the late senator lies in state for public viewing at City Hall in San Francisco on Oct. 4, 2023. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Among the first to pay tribute to Feinstein was U.S. House Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi, who appeared visibly shaken by the loss of her friend.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“She was a person of greatness. She was a stateswoman. She was a national figure. But she was as personal as the poorest person in our city. She always cared,” Pelosi said after signing a book of condolences.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“As mayor of the city, she came in under the most gruesome circumstances, and yet she gave comfort and strength to the city at that difficult time,” Pelosi added. “She and I were not on the same place on the political spectrum. So we had our fun with it all. My family loved her. We were neighbors, we were friends.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11963467\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/20231004-Feinstein-Lying-in-State-006-JY-KQED.jpg\" alt='A large group of people salute a casket draped in an American flag as it enters a building with the words \"City Hall\" over the door.' width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11963467\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/20231004-Feinstein-Lying-in-State-006-JY-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/20231004-Feinstein-Lying-in-State-006-JY-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/20231004-Feinstein-Lying-in-State-006-JY-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/20231004-Feinstein-Lying-in-State-006-JY-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/20231004-Feinstein-Lying-in-State-006-JY-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/20231004-Feinstein-Lying-in-State-006-JY-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The body of Sen. Dianne Feinstein is carried into City Hall to lie in state in San Francisco on Wednesday, Oct. 4, 2023. Feinstein was the longest-serving female senator and longest-serving senator from California before her passing. \u003ccite>(Juliana Yamada/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Pelosi will be among those eulogizing Feinstein at a memorial that will be held at 1 p.m. on Thursday. Other speakers will include Vice President Kamala Harris, San Francisco Mayor London Breed, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and recorded remarks from President Joe Biden. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The memorial, which was originally planned to be open to the public, will now be open only to invited guests “due to increased security,” representatives from Feinstein’s office said in a statement Wednesday evening. The service will be livestreamed \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmnUrjQzKvk\">here\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story has been updated.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "A steady stream of mourners filed past a flag-draped coffin holding Feinstein's body inside the City Hall rotunda on Wednesday. The late senator's memorial service will take place Thursday.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>San Franciscans paid their respects starting early Wednesday morning to honor the late U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein, who \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11946670/dianne-feinstein-californias-longest-serving-us-senator-dies-at-age-90\">died last week at age 90\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Outside City Hall, a large American flag hung beside two city fire trucks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fire Chief Jeanine Nicholson noted that as mayor, Feinstein had a special relationship with the San Francisco Fire Department.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“She loved the fire department. She carried a helmet and a turnout coat wherever she went,” Nicholson said. “She said that she called for a third alarm one time at a fire she pulled up to, and I believe it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nicholson wasn’t in the department at the time, but she said, as mayor, Feinstein was pivotal in recruiting more female firefighters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The first five women in the fire department that came in 1987 — they were nicknamed ‘Feinstein’s finest.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11963468\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/20231004-Feinstein-Lying-in-State-051-JY-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A long line of people snakes through an ornate building.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11963468\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/20231004-Feinstein-Lying-in-State-051-JY-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/20231004-Feinstein-Lying-in-State-051-JY-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/20231004-Feinstein-Lying-in-State-051-JY-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/20231004-Feinstein-Lying-in-State-051-JY-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/20231004-Feinstein-Lying-in-State-051-JY-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/20231004-Feinstein-Lying-in-State-051-JY-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Visitors stand in line to pay their respects to Sen. Dianne Feinstein as her body lies in state at City Hall in San Francisco on Wednesday. \u003ccite>(Juliana Yamada/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>A steady stream of mourners filed past a flag-draped coffin holding Feinstein’s body inside the City Hall rotunda, as a string quartet played on the grand staircase. Erica Moreno of Sacramento brought her three daughters along to honor Feinstein.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I would like my daughters to know that she was a trailblazer and that when you have tenacity, big dreams and willingness, you can accomplish all,” Moreno said. “She was an excellent role model.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Andrew Xia, 27, wasn’t born when Feinstein was mayor, but he appreciates her accomplishments in her long political career.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I just remember that her long Senate career especially, and her contributions to San Francisco when she was mayor, in terms of gay rights, in terms of transit, a lot of it really impacts all of us, even in the present day,” Xia said. “Without her, I don’t think we’d have cable cars or the street cars today.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11963465\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/231004-FeinsteinLieinState-027-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"People write at a table in front of a picture of a person with their arms raised.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11963465\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/231004-FeinsteinLieinState-027-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/231004-FeinsteinLieinState-027-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/231004-FeinsteinLieinState-027-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/231004-FeinsteinLieinState-027-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/231004-FeinsteinLieinState-027-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/231004-FeinsteinLieinState-027-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mourners write notes and leave flowers as Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s body lies in state at City Hall in San Francisco on Wednesday. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Some who turned out worked for Feinstein as staff members or, in the case of Dick Morten, a business leader during her tenure in City Hall.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I was at the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce and the vice president for public affairs, and we worked together on a number of programs and other times we opposed each other. But she was always very gracious and a good friend during that time,” Morten said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>A tragedy ushered Feinstein into the mayor’s office in 1978. As president of the Board of Supervisors, she announced the news that Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk had been shot and killed. Feinstein, along with Barbara Boxer, would later go on to make history, as California’s first women elected to the Senate in 1992, in what was known as the Year of the Woman, following the controversial Senate confirmation hearing for Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite her groundbreaking achievements over more than five decades in public office, Feinstein was sometimes criticized as being too conservative, or for staying in office too long.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>None of that matters to Paula Farmer, who came to pay her respects.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s just been an amazing run. And no matter the conflict that people have had with her last years, I think that the work that she did outweighed all of that,” Farmer said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11963464\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/231004-FeinsteinLieinState-015-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A person with long hair cries in front of a casket draped in an American flag.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11963464\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/231004-FeinsteinLieinState-015-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/231004-FeinsteinLieinState-015-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/231004-FeinsteinLieinState-015-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/231004-FeinsteinLieinState-015-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/231004-FeinsteinLieinState-015-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/231004-FeinsteinLieinState-015-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">House Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi holds her hands to her face as she pays respect to Sen. Dianne Feinstein as the late senator lies in state for public viewing at City Hall in San Francisco on Oct. 4, 2023. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Among the first to pay tribute to Feinstein was U.S. House Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi, who appeared visibly shaken by the loss of her friend.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“She was a person of greatness. She was a stateswoman. She was a national figure. But she was as personal as the poorest person in our city. She always cared,” Pelosi said after signing a book of condolences.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“As mayor of the city, she came in under the most gruesome circumstances, and yet she gave comfort and strength to the city at that difficult time,” Pelosi added. “She and I were not on the same place on the political spectrum. So we had our fun with it all. My family loved her. We were neighbors, we were friends.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11963467\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/20231004-Feinstein-Lying-in-State-006-JY-KQED.jpg\" alt='A large group of people salute a casket draped in an American flag as it enters a building with the words \"City Hall\" over the door.' width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11963467\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/20231004-Feinstein-Lying-in-State-006-JY-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/20231004-Feinstein-Lying-in-State-006-JY-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/20231004-Feinstein-Lying-in-State-006-JY-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/20231004-Feinstein-Lying-in-State-006-JY-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/20231004-Feinstein-Lying-in-State-006-JY-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/20231004-Feinstein-Lying-in-State-006-JY-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The body of Sen. Dianne Feinstein is carried into City Hall to lie in state in San Francisco on Wednesday, Oct. 4, 2023. Feinstein was the longest-serving female senator and longest-serving senator from California before her passing. \u003ccite>(Juliana Yamada/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Pelosi will be among those eulogizing Feinstein at a memorial that will be held at 1 p.m. on Thursday. Other speakers will include Vice President Kamala Harris, San Francisco Mayor London Breed, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and recorded remarks from President Joe Biden. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The memorial, which was originally planned to be open to the public, will now be open only to invited guests “due to increased security,” representatives from Feinstein’s office said in a statement Wednesday evening. The service will be livestreamed \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmnUrjQzKvk\">here\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story has been updated.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Cyclists and Businesses Reflect on 2 Months With the Valencia Street Bikeway ",
"headTitle": "Cyclists and Businesses Reflect on 2 Months With the Valencia Street Bikeway | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>Avid cyclists like Laurel Matthews, who ride often through the heart of Valencia Street in San Francisco’s Mission District, have gotten used to pedaling away on the usual bike lanes that run along parked cars.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In the old configuration, cars would just pull in front of you,” Matthews said. “I like that cars at least do not pull into the lane yet.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since Aug. 1, a center-running bikeway has been in effect along Valencia Street from 15th to 23rd streets. Two-way bicycle traffic happens in the middle of the street. Both plastic bollards and a rubber curb, which border either side of the lane, provide some protection from cars.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The change is a result of the Mid-Valencia Pilot, which was approved in April by the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency. SFMTA authorized the construction of the new bikeway, aiming to make the street safer and easier for businesses to work with delivery and ride-hailing apps, according to Tom Maguire, director of the Streets Division for SFMTA. (The pilot is set to last one year through August 2024.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11962332\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11962332\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/230921-ValenciaBikeway-017-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A parking sign and a number of businesses on a city street.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/230921-ValenciaBikeway-017-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/230921-ValenciaBikeway-017-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/230921-ValenciaBikeway-017-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/230921-ValenciaBikeway-017-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/230921-ValenciaBikeway-017-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/230921-ValenciaBikeway-017-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A sign provides parking restrictions for Valencia Street near Nizario’s Pizza in San Francisco’s Mission District on Sept. 21, 2023. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“We’re trying to adapt the street to the very unique conditions that the merchants and the residents on Valencia are facing right now,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In addition to the new bikeway, the Mid-Valencia Pilot changed many metered parking spots to loading zones and prohibited left turns from 15th to 23rd streets.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>Safety first\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Valencia Street — both a popular bike route connecting the northern and southern parts of the city and a nightlife hub — is one of the city’s target areas for improving traffic injuries and deaths.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to a May 2023 SFMTA \u003ca href=\"https://www.visionzerosf.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/San-Francisco-Collisions-Report-2017_2022.pdf\">report (PDF)\u003c/a>, two Valencia Street intersections had a combined 22 bicycle-involved injury collisions from 2017–2022 — among the highest reported injuries of any intersections in the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=news_11941576 hero='https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/GettyImages-1321285046-1020x633.jpg']Pedestrian safety is also a concern. On Sept. 20, 80-year-old Jian Huang of San Francisco was hit and killed by a driver making a left turn onto Valencia at 18th Street — marking the second pedestrian death on Valencia Street this year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Following this latest tragedy, transportation advocacy groups like Walk SF want to see a ban on left turns onto Valencia, building off the pilot’s prohibition on certain left turns.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If we look at every single fatality that’s happened on Valencia Street since 2014, it’s all been cars turning left,” said Jodie Medeiros, executive director of Walk SF. “This is a known problem and we need to do everything to end that problem.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>SFMTA plans to put out a status report on the pilot this fall. Maguire said that document will give further details, such as how vehicle, bicycle and pedestrian traffic has changed, and how businesses have been affected.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to Maguire, if the pilot does not meet its goals, the city would rip up the project and go back to the drawing board.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>Cycling up\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Cyclists have mixed feelings about riding on the new center bikeway.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’ve heard from a lot of people who say they’ve either stopped biking on Valencia and started using an alternative bike route, or they just stopped biking period.” said Luke Bornheimer, a sustainable transportation advocate, who has strongly opposed the bikeway since the early planning stages.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11962330\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11962330\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/230921-ValenciaBikeway-014-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"People on bikes and skateboards ride down a bike path in the middle of a city street.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/230921-ValenciaBikeway-014-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/230921-ValenciaBikeway-014-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/230921-ValenciaBikeway-014-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/230921-ValenciaBikeway-014-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/230921-ValenciaBikeway-014-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/230921-ValenciaBikeway-014-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Bicyclists ride on the Valencia Street bike lane in San Francisco’s Mission District on Sept. 21, 2023. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>He says the speed bumps and posts, which border the bikeway, are not enough to protect cyclists from drivers who might illegally turn through the bikeway — and that the two-way design is unintuitive and could cause crashes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some cyclists like Kate Blumberg, who has commuted by bicycle for 28 years, are happy about the new lane.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The Valencia bike lanes make me feel like king of the world,” she said. “It makes bikes seem like the clear priority on the street.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Before the new bikeway, floods of app-based rideshare and delivery workers would double-park in the old bike lane while they grabbed a burrito or dropped off their passengers, forcing cyclists to merge into traffic.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>Business woes\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Yaser Awadalla, owner of Nizario’s Pizza on Valencia Street, says while things appear safer for cyclists, he’s noticed a downturn in sales since the new bikeway was installed (contributing to the overall slump caused by the COVID pandemic).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s a lot less stop-and-go than before,” Awadalla said. “We used to depend on that a lot for pizza-by-the-slice. For the sake of the business, yeah, I would like it to go back to the way it was.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11962672\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11962672\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/230927-ValenciaBikeway-004-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A person stands in front of a storefront with their arms crossed.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/230927-ValenciaBikeway-004-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/230927-ValenciaBikeway-004-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/230927-ValenciaBikeway-004-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/230927-ValenciaBikeway-004-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/230927-ValenciaBikeway-004-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/230927-ValenciaBikeway-004-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Yaser Awadalla stands outside Nizario’s Pizza, a pizza shop he owns, on Valencia Street in San Francisco on Sept. 27, 2023. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Next door, at Taqueria La Cumbre, cashier Duvan Duran says sales are down, too. He blames the loss of metered spots.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As part of the pilot, the city took away 71 metered spots and replaced many with a new type of dual-use loading zone. From 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., those spots are for commercial loading, but from 6–10 p.m., it can be used for 5-minute loading by anyone. This zone is partly intended to accommodate app-based deliveries and ride hailing, according to SFMTA.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The construction workers don’t come in their trucks to eat. The painters don’t come in a group and eat. People now have five minutes to park and eat. I don’t think that’s enough time,” Duran said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He wants the city to extend the amount of time people can park and reduce the amount people need to pay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Look at today. I mean, the weather is nice. There’s a lot of restaurants over here, but there’s nobody here, because it’s hard to find parking,” said Miguel Ramirez, owner of Los Amigos restaurant, which was empty when he spoke with me on a recent sunny afternoon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11962329\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11962329\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/230921-ValenciaBikeway-006-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A person wearing a hat stands behind a bar.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/230921-ValenciaBikeway-006-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/230921-ValenciaBikeway-006-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/230921-ValenciaBikeway-006-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/230921-ValenciaBikeway-006-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/230921-ValenciaBikeway-006-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/230921-ValenciaBikeway-006-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Miguel Ramírez, an employee at Los Amigos restaurant, looks out the window of the restaurant on Valencia Street in San Francisco’s Mission District on Sept. 21, 2023. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Ramirez said he welcomes the new center bikeway — but not at the cost of dealing with the new loading zones. This fall, he and fellow restaurant owners plan to ask the city to remove the new bikeway at a future SFMTA meeting. But he doubted that the city would go through with this approach.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It will be hard because they already spent the money, and they already put the lane in the middle,” Ramirez said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "Since Aug. 1, a center-running bikeway has been in effect along Valencia Street from 15th to 23rd streets. But it's been an adjustment process for bicyclists and drivers, businesses and residents alike.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Avid cyclists like Laurel Matthews, who ride often through the heart of Valencia Street in San Francisco’s Mission District, have gotten used to pedaling away on the usual bike lanes that run along parked cars.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In the old configuration, cars would just pull in front of you,” Matthews said. “I like that cars at least do not pull into the lane yet.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since Aug. 1, a center-running bikeway has been in effect along Valencia Street from 15th to 23rd streets. Two-way bicycle traffic happens in the middle of the street. Both plastic bollards and a rubber curb, which border either side of the lane, provide some protection from cars.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The change is a result of the Mid-Valencia Pilot, which was approved in April by the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency. SFMTA authorized the construction of the new bikeway, aiming to make the street safer and easier for businesses to work with delivery and ride-hailing apps, according to Tom Maguire, director of the Streets Division for SFMTA. (The pilot is set to last one year through August 2024.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11962332\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11962332\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/230921-ValenciaBikeway-017-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A parking sign and a number of businesses on a city street.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/230921-ValenciaBikeway-017-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/230921-ValenciaBikeway-017-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/230921-ValenciaBikeway-017-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/230921-ValenciaBikeway-017-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/230921-ValenciaBikeway-017-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/230921-ValenciaBikeway-017-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A sign provides parking restrictions for Valencia Street near Nizario’s Pizza in San Francisco’s Mission District on Sept. 21, 2023. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“We’re trying to adapt the street to the very unique conditions that the merchants and the residents on Valencia are facing right now,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In addition to the new bikeway, the Mid-Valencia Pilot changed many metered parking spots to loading zones and prohibited left turns from 15th to 23rd streets.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>Safety first\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Valencia Street — both a popular bike route connecting the northern and southern parts of the city and a nightlife hub — is one of the city’s target areas for improving traffic injuries and deaths.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to a May 2023 SFMTA \u003ca href=\"https://www.visionzerosf.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/San-Francisco-Collisions-Report-2017_2022.pdf\">report (PDF)\u003c/a>, two Valencia Street intersections had a combined 22 bicycle-involved injury collisions from 2017–2022 — among the highest reported injuries of any intersections in the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Pedestrian safety is also a concern. On Sept. 20, 80-year-old Jian Huang of San Francisco was hit and killed by a driver making a left turn onto Valencia at 18th Street — marking the second pedestrian death on Valencia Street this year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Following this latest tragedy, transportation advocacy groups like Walk SF want to see a ban on left turns onto Valencia, building off the pilot’s prohibition on certain left turns.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If we look at every single fatality that’s happened on Valencia Street since 2014, it’s all been cars turning left,” said Jodie Medeiros, executive director of Walk SF. “This is a known problem and we need to do everything to end that problem.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>SFMTA plans to put out a status report on the pilot this fall. Maguire said that document will give further details, such as how vehicle, bicycle and pedestrian traffic has changed, and how businesses have been affected.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to Maguire, if the pilot does not meet its goals, the city would rip up the project and go back to the drawing board.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>Cycling up\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Cyclists have mixed feelings about riding on the new center bikeway.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’ve heard from a lot of people who say they’ve either stopped biking on Valencia and started using an alternative bike route, or they just stopped biking period.” said Luke Bornheimer, a sustainable transportation advocate, who has strongly opposed the bikeway since the early planning stages.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11962330\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11962330\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/230921-ValenciaBikeway-014-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"People on bikes and skateboards ride down a bike path in the middle of a city street.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/230921-ValenciaBikeway-014-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/230921-ValenciaBikeway-014-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/230921-ValenciaBikeway-014-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/230921-ValenciaBikeway-014-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/230921-ValenciaBikeway-014-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/230921-ValenciaBikeway-014-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Bicyclists ride on the Valencia Street bike lane in San Francisco’s Mission District on Sept. 21, 2023. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>He says the speed bumps and posts, which border the bikeway, are not enough to protect cyclists from drivers who might illegally turn through the bikeway — and that the two-way design is unintuitive and could cause crashes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some cyclists like Kate Blumberg, who has commuted by bicycle for 28 years, are happy about the new lane.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The Valencia bike lanes make me feel like king of the world,” she said. “It makes bikes seem like the clear priority on the street.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Before the new bikeway, floods of app-based rideshare and delivery workers would double-park in the old bike lane while they grabbed a burrito or dropped off their passengers, forcing cyclists to merge into traffic.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>Business woes\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Yaser Awadalla, owner of Nizario’s Pizza on Valencia Street, says while things appear safer for cyclists, he’s noticed a downturn in sales since the new bikeway was installed (contributing to the overall slump caused by the COVID pandemic).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s a lot less stop-and-go than before,” Awadalla said. “We used to depend on that a lot for pizza-by-the-slice. For the sake of the business, yeah, I would like it to go back to the way it was.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11962672\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11962672\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/230927-ValenciaBikeway-004-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A person stands in front of a storefront with their arms crossed.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/230927-ValenciaBikeway-004-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/230927-ValenciaBikeway-004-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/230927-ValenciaBikeway-004-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/230927-ValenciaBikeway-004-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/230927-ValenciaBikeway-004-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/230927-ValenciaBikeway-004-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Yaser Awadalla stands outside Nizario’s Pizza, a pizza shop he owns, on Valencia Street in San Francisco on Sept. 27, 2023. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Next door, at Taqueria La Cumbre, cashier Duvan Duran says sales are down, too. He blames the loss of metered spots.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As part of the pilot, the city took away 71 metered spots and replaced many with a new type of dual-use loading zone. From 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., those spots are for commercial loading, but from 6–10 p.m., it can be used for 5-minute loading by anyone. This zone is partly intended to accommodate app-based deliveries and ride hailing, according to SFMTA.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The construction workers don’t come in their trucks to eat. The painters don’t come in a group and eat. People now have five minutes to park and eat. I don’t think that’s enough time,” Duran said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He wants the city to extend the amount of time people can park and reduce the amount people need to pay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Look at today. I mean, the weather is nice. There’s a lot of restaurants over here, but there’s nobody here, because it’s hard to find parking,” said Miguel Ramirez, owner of Los Amigos restaurant, which was empty when he spoke with me on a recent sunny afternoon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11962329\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11962329\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/230921-ValenciaBikeway-006-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A person wearing a hat stands behind a bar.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/230921-ValenciaBikeway-006-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/230921-ValenciaBikeway-006-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/230921-ValenciaBikeway-006-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/230921-ValenciaBikeway-006-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/230921-ValenciaBikeway-006-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/230921-ValenciaBikeway-006-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Miguel Ramírez, an employee at Los Amigos restaurant, looks out the window of the restaurant on Valencia Street in San Francisco’s Mission District on Sept. 21, 2023. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Ramirez said he welcomes the new center bikeway — but not at the cost of dealing with the new loading zones. This fall, he and fellow restaurant owners plan to ask the city to remove the new bikeway at a future SFMTA meeting. But he doubted that the city would go through with this approach.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It will be hard because they already spent the money, and they already put the lane in the middle,” Ramirez said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"title": "The Legacy Dianne Feinstein Leaves Behind in the Bay Area",
"headTitle": "The Legacy Dianne Feinstein Leaves Behind in the Bay Area | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"#episode-transcript\">\u003ci>View the full episode transcript.\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\n\u003cp>On Thursday night, Sen. Dianne Feinstein passed away at age 90. Before becoming a U.S. Senator in 1992, she was best known for her time as San Francisco mayor. Today, we revisit an episode with KQED’s Scott Shafer about how she got her start in local politics.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp id=\"embed-code\" class=\"inconsolata\">\n\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"200\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https://playlist.megaphone.fm/?e=KQINC3980513829&light=true\" width=\"100%\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\n\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Links:\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/liveblog/dianne-feinstein-dies\">Senator Dianne Feinstein Dies at 90: Live Updates.\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11962877/11962877-revision-v1\">What Feinstein’s Death Means For Control of the Senate and the Looming Government Shutdown.\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13845645/dianne-feinstein-jello-biafra-san-francisco-punk\">How San Francisco Punk Reacted to Dianne Feinstein in the 1970s.\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\n\u003ch2 id=\"episode-transcript\">Episode Transcript\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Ericka Cruz Guevarra:\u003c/b> I’m Ericka Cruz Guevarra and welcome to the Bay. Local news to Keep You Rooted. Condolences and tributes have been pouring in for Senator Dianne Feinstein, who died in her Washington, D.C., home at the age of 90. Feinstein served in the U.S. Senate for more than 30 years while she was in office. She was a champion of gun control and a trailblazer for women in politics. But by the end of her life, she was a controversial figure. Some Democrats who hoped she would step aside for a new generation grew angry and frustrated with her for continuing to stay in office, even as her health declined. At one point, though, Feinstein was the next generation, a woman of many firsts who was breaking glass ceilings for those behind her in local, state and national politics.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Dianne Feinstein: \u003c/b>I look to building San Francisco’s future through leadership, honesty and creativity. So let’s end once and for all the nonsense that a woman is not capable of providing the strength and toughness necessary.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Ericka Cruz Guevarra:\u003c/b> Today, we’re revisiting a conversation from back in March. Our senior editor, Alan Monticello, talks with KQED’s Scott Shafer about Dianne Feinstein’s San Francisco roots and the legacy she leaves behind in the Bay Area. Stay with us.\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo:\u003c/strong> Hi. This is Alan Montecillo, senior editor of The Bay. We’ve been planning this episode about DianneFeinstein for some time now. But a few days ago, we got some breaking news about her. On Thursday, Senator Feinstein announced that she’s been admitted to a hospital in the Bay Area to receive treatment for shingles. In a statement, she said she was diagnosed last month and that she expects to make a full recovery and return to Washington later on in March. For more updates on this and other breaking news stories, check out KQED.org or tune in to 88.5 FM. All right. Here’s the show.\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo:\u003c/strong> I’m Alan Montecillo in for Ericka Cruz Guevarra, and welcome to The Bay. Local news to keep you rooted. By now, you probably know that Senator Dianne Feinstein is retiring at the end of her term next year after representing California in the U.S. Senate since 1992. But before she was in Washington, Feinstein was known best for her time in San Francisco in the seventies and eighties. She led the city through some difficult and turbulent times. She also became well known across the country for being one of just a few women in elected office.\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\u003cstrong>Dianne Feinstein:\u003c/strong> I look to building San Francisco’s future through leadership, honesty and creativity. So, let’s end once and for all the nonsense that a woman is not capable of providing the strength and toughness necessary to do this.\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo:\u003c/strong> Today: when Dianne Feinstein was mayor of San Francisco.\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer:\u003c/strong> Dianne Feinstein was born Diane Goldman in 1933 in San Francisco.\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo: \u003c/strong>Scott Shafer is senior editor of KQED’s California Politics and Government Desk.\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer:\u003c/strong> Her father was a well-known surgeon. Her mother was an immigrant from Russia, a former model. Her parents were both Jewish, but she went to Sacred Heart, which is a Catholic school, very disciplined, you know, very academic. She did not have a happy childhood. She had two younger sisters. Her mother was known to drink a lot. She would fly off into a rage for no particular reason.She learned to be an adult as a young kid because she had to take care of her younger sisters. And I think you can see some of that behavior in her as a political figure, somebody who was sort of in charge. She went to Stanford. She focused on political science. She got involved in student government. Found out she was pretty good at it and liked it. And obviously, that’s what she pursued in 1969.\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo:\u003c/strong> She decides to run for the board of supervisors. I believe this is her first run for office. What are her big issues when she decides to run citywide?\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer:\u003c/strong> She’s always been focused on sort of the nuts and bolts of government. And that was certainly what she was looking at when she was running that first time. She was closely aligned with business groups. She cared a lot about the economy of the city, the level of taxation, services like Muni. It raised a lot of money. She was on television, the very first candidate running for the Board of supervisors in San Francisco that ever actually advertised on TV.\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\u003cstrong>Interviewer:\u003c/strong> What do you think that the new people can do that the old ones haven’t?\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\u003cstrong>Dianne Feinstein:\u003c/strong> Well, I don’t think the board has really done their homework when it comes to taxation. There are other kinds of taxes which are fair.\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer:\u003c/strong> You know, seeing her in those early, early clips, you know, in 1969, I always think of her as a serious-minded politician, somebody who really had her nose to the grindstone and was looking at the budget and reading bills and legislation.\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\u003cstrong>Dianne Feinstein:\u003c/strong> I think we can come up with law enforcement programs that really can afford a greater degree of public protection. And I, for one, intend to speak out very loudly about this pollution of our Bay with our sewage. As you know, when it rains, all of our raw sewage is dumped into the Bay.\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer:\u003c/strong> She very much appealed to sort of the center of San Francisco politics. And she came in first place, which — and then she became the [San Francisco] Board of Supervisors president –the first woman to do that.\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo:\u003c/strong> This was also a time, as you mentioned, where there were just way, way way fewer women in elected office. You mentioned she was the only woman who ran in that supervisor’s race in 1969. How much did that come up when she was campaigning and how did she talk about it at that time?\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer:\u003c/strong> I don’t think she made a big deal of it.\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\u003cstrong>News anchor:\u003c/strong> Dianne Feinstein is the kind of woman many ladies could dislike if she wasn’t so appealing. She does everything well. She is bright, poised, attractive and capable.\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer:\u003c/strong> I don’t think she wanted to draw attention to the fact that she was a woman. If she was asked about it — and she was, you know, later, after she got elected — she would say things like, well, you know, as long as a woman can maintain her femininity and be proper, I think that she can still be a good politician. Just very not wanting to color too far outside the lines.\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\u003cstrong>News anchor:\u003c/strong> Mrs. Feinstein, how do you feel about being a woman involved in politics? Do you think that that’s an asset or a liability, or do you think it’s a factor perhaps in your victory orin your effectiveness?\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\u003cstrong>Dianne Feinstein:\u003c/strong> Well, I think it’s an asset, actually. I think if a woman is able to retain her femininity, if she’s able to use it with taste and wisely, if she also has a good brain and commonsense and uses these ingredients as well, I think she can be enormously effective.\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer:\u003c/strong> And that was something that later in her career, even though she was breaking these glass ceilings, I think a lot of women felt that she didn’t lean into the feminist movement enough.\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo: \u003c/strong>Feinstein gets elected to the board in1969, eventually becomes the board president. She does run for mayor in ’71 and ’75 and loses both times. In 1978, she does become the mayor, but kind of through one of the darkest moments in San Francisco history. I’m talking, of course, about the assassinations of Harvey Milk and George Mosconi. Remind me, walk me through the lead-up to that day. What was going on in San Francisco?\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer:\u003c/strong> Wow. I mean, 1978 as a year was a traumatic year for Dianne Feinstein, personally and professionally. Her husband, Bert, who was the love of her life, by all accounts, died. We had the horrible spectacle of hundreds of people dying in Jonestown.\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\u003cstrong>News anchor:\u003c/strong> I also have to warn you, as we begin this special report, that what you’re about to see almost defies description. And some of you may not want to watch it.\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>… which was a compound down in Guyana in South America. It was led by Jim Jones, who was a preacher in San Francisco, very politically connected.\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\u003cstrong>News anchor:\u003c/strong> As soon as these pictures from Jonestown cleared our newsroom, everybody, even a lot of hardened news people reacted in horror and disbelief. The word on everybody’s lips was shades of Auschwitz.\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer:\u003c/strong> And so the city was reeling. And then just like ten days or so later, shots rang out in city hall. The mayor, George Mosconi, who was a beloved progressive, [was] shot and killed by Dan White, who was a member of the Board of Supervisors. He then walked down the hall, shot and killed Harvey Milk, the first openly gay member of the Board of [Supervisors], and Feinstein found his body.\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo:\u003c/strong> There’s, of course, this very well known clip of Acting Mayor Feinstein having to essentially break this news to the public. What do you remember from that footage?\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Every time I see that footage, it sends a chill up and down my spine. And I’ve seen it many times.\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\u003cstrong>News anchor:\u003c/strong> Both Mayor Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk have been shot and killed.\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\u003cstrong>Crowd:\u003c/strong> [HORRIFIED GASPS FROM CROWD]\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer:\u003c/strong> Her self-control, her looking straight out into the middle distance and breaking the news. I mean, nowadays we all find out about news instantaneously on our phones. But the idea that you could have, you know, an assassinated mayor and an assassinated supervisor in the building and no one knew. So, she delivered the news to a press corps and others who were assembled outside the mayor’s office. And so, what really stands out was just her shock, you know, her grief, but also holding it together and being strong in a moment when the wheels were falling off the city.\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo:\u003c/strong> Does Feinstein ever kind of open up later in life about what that day was like for her?\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer:\u003c/strong> She does. She talked with me and Marisa Lagos on Political Breakdown about it.\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\u003cstrong>Dianne Feinstein:\u003c/strong> It’s still very traumatic for me to look back on candidly. And I would give up anything if they had not happened.\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer:\u003c/strong> Ironically, hours before the assassinations, Dianne Feinstein had mentioned to people that she was thinking of getting out of politics.\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\u003cstrong>Dianne Feinstein:\u003c/strong> I had run for mayor, and I was defeated. And I was convinced I would never be mayor. My husband had died. I had a daughter. And I just thought enough was enough.\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer:\u003c/strong> And Dianne Feinstein herself had been the subject of attempted violence. In 1976, there was a radical anti-capitalist group that planted a bomb outside her house in Pacific Heights. It didn’t go off. She wasn’t hurt. They also shot out her windows in a beach house that she had in Marin. So, she was, you know, no stranger to violence. But I think the level of violence was just too much for so many people in San Francisco to bear. But she held it together.\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo:\u003c/strong> So, Dianne Feinstein becomes the mayor in 1978 in the wake of this horrific tragedy. You’ve already mentioned that this was an extremely chaotic time in San Francisco. I mean, what does she inherit as she steps right into the job?\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer:\u003c/strong> Well, the first thing she has to do is to begin to heal the city, bring the city back together after the assassinations, after Jonestown. And she really focused on the nuts and bolts of city government. One of her big campaigns as mayor early on was to save the cable cars. They needed a lot of repair. They were old. And she said, no, we can’t shut these down. These are an iconic symbol of San Francisco. And she led, you know, a group of businesspeople to raise the money to renovate the cable cars. The other thing I should point out, in terms of taking over as mayor, 1978 was a big year in politics in that voters in November of that year had passed Proposition 13, which was the so-called property tax revolt.\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer:\u003c/strong> And so the finances of cities and counties and state government were sort of thrown up into upheaval. And so mayors, including Feinstein, had to deal with this sort of huge disruption in revenue sources. And that was the kind of thing she focused on. It was those, you know — really meat and potatoes, you know, make sure the potholes are filled, make sure the police department has enough staffing and that sort of thing, make sure the buses are running on time. And it was in that environment that we saw the dawn of the AIDS epidemic, which was landed right on her desk.\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\u003cstrong>News anchor:\u003c/strong> This depression of the immune system can lead to a rare form of cancer, Kaposi’s sarcoma, which shows up as those purple spots. This cancer has a death rate of 80% two years after diagnosis. This is not a benign disease.\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo\u003c/strong>: Yeah, let’s talk about that. Tell me more about Dianne Feinstein’s response to the AIDS crisis in San Francisco.\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer:\u003c/strong> Dianne Feinstein really stepped up during the AIDS epidemic. I mean, it didn’t even have a name at that point. They called it GRID: Gay Related Immune Deficiency. At that point, there were a couple, just a very small number of these mysterious illnesses that had broken out among gay men. It was very troubling. And it, you know, quickly became clear that this was spreading rather fast. And at that time, Ronald Reagan was president. We had a Republican governor, George Deukmejian. And especially the Reagan administration did literally nothing helpful.\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer:\u003c/strong> And so it fell to San Francisco and Mayor Feinstein. And from the very beginning, as early as 1981–82, she put money in the city budget to investigate what was happening and put together the infrastructure of what became known as the San Francisco Model.\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\u003cstrong>P\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>aul Volberding:\u003c/strong> San Francisco got a lot of credit for the San Francisco model of response to the AIDS epidemic. And really, a lot of that can be traced back to Dianne Feinstein’s leadership.\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer:\u003c/strong> People like Paul Volberding, who was a young AIDS doc at San Francisco General Hospital, would go to her and brief her on what was happening.\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\u003cstrong>Paul Volberding:\u003c/strong> We were learning a lot very quickly and she wanted to, and I think she wanted to have policies that reflected the best knowledge at the time. In contrast to some places in the country, she really let that science lead her to her approach to this.\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer:\u003c/strong> She came from a medical background. She had been married to a doctor. Her father was a doctor. She was very interested in data. But when others, like Mayor Koch in New York, were doing nothing or not enough, she really, really embraced it and took the lead on putting together the system that got the city through a very, very dark time.\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\u003cstrong>Paul Volberding:\u003c/strong> When we needed money to, you know, hire more doctors to develop more space at San Francisco General Hospital to bring people together, to look at research questions in the community, that support for that seemed to me to be always easy.\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer:\u003c/strong> The one big thing that she did that was very controversial is San Francisco had gay bathhouses, and even thought he virus hadn’t been discovered yet, it wasn’t clear what was causing AIDS, there was a sense among public health people that whatever it was was being spread by sexual contact among men, and she wanted to close down the bathhouses, and it became a big mess. Ultimately, she got her way. The bathhouses shut down, which I think many would say was the right thing to do.\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo:\u003c/strong> What was her relationship with the gay community like when she was mayor?\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong> Well, you have to, I think, look at it in the context of her time. You know, in the late seventies, there weren’t a lot of openly gay elected officials. You know, Harvey Milk had been shot and killed. It was somewhat risky in many places to even align yourself politically with the gay community. She did that, you know, and so she won support in her early campaigns for supervisor and later, you know, for mayor. However, she wasn’t beloved universally.\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\u003cstrong>News anchor:\u003c/strong> Feinstein is often criticized by gays for not feeling comfortable with the whole subject of homosexuality. Gays attack her for what they consider her inability to control alleged police harassment of gays.\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>She vetoed a piece of legislation that would have created domestic partnerships in San Francisco for same-sex couples. She never rode in the gay Pride parades to this day because I think she’s just so proper.\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\u003cstrong>News anchor:\u003c/strong> Here, she proclaims Lesbian Gay Freedom Week and boosts the gay parade in which she has never personally participated.\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\u003cstrong>Dianne Feinstein:\u003c/strong> [Unintelligible]\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\u003cstrong>S\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>cott Shafer:\u003c/strong> There was a well-known, civic, gay activist who said once about Dianne Feinstein, she doesn’t care what we do in bed as long as we’re in bed by 11 o’clock. So, I would say it was very mixed. And also, the gay community tends to be a lot more liberal on issues. She was for the death penalty. She was very pro-business. But at the same time, I think looking back, she gets, you know, total credit for how she handled the AIDS epidemic.\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo\u003c/strong>: In the end, was she a popular mayor?\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer:\u003c/strong> Absolutely. I mean, I would say there were people who really disliked Dianne Feinstein. I think there were people who felt she was too conservative, that she was kind of a prude. You know, in a city that is known for kind of outrageousness. But I think her time as mayor has aged well. \u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo:\u003c/strong> How and when does she eventually kind of make the leap from the local to the national stage? We know her now as a senator, but how does that leap happen?\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer:\u003c/strong> Well, in some ways, 1984. San Francisco hosted the Democratic National Convention, where Walter Mondale nominates Geraldine Ferraro to be the first woman on a major party ticket. And just before the convention, Dianne Feinstein and Geraldine Ferraro are on the cover of \u003cem>Time\u003c/em> magazine. Their photos, or pictures of them are there with the title “Why Not a Woman for Vice President?” So, by then, she was already developing a national profile. Everything changes in 1991, when Clarence Thomas is nominated by President Bush to be on the U.S. Supreme Court and there are allegations of sexual harassment and worse from Anita Hill.\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\u003cstrong>Anita Hill:\u003c/strong> He talked about pornographic materials depicting individuals with large penises or large breasts involved in various sex acts.\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer:\u003c/strong> The Judiciary Committee, which held hearings into the confirmation of Thomas and which also talked with and interviewed Anita Hill, was all white males, mostly older, including Joe Biden, who was the chair. And they treated Anita Hill disrespectfully.\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\u003cstrong>Joe Biden:\u003c/strong> It is appropriate to ask Professor Hill anything any member wishes to ask her to plumb the depths of her credibility.\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\u003cstrong>Alan Simpson: \u003c/strong>Why in God’s name would you ever speak to a man like that the rest of your life?\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\u003cstrong>Howell Heflin:\u003c/strong> I’ve got to determine what your motivation might be. Are you a scorned woman? Are you interested in writing abook?\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Clarence Thomas barely got confirmed. I think he got 51 [or 52] votes. And Feinstein and many others saw that as an indication that we needed to get more women into government in Washington.\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\u003cstrong>Dianne Feinstein:\u003c/strong> Tonight, history is being made.\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer:\u003c/strong> Dianne Feinstein, this Jewish woman from San Francisco becomes senator along with Barbara Boxer, who had been in the House of Representatives from Marin.\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\u003cstrong>Dianne Feinstein:\u003c/strong> We will be the Cagney Lacey one-two punch for the state of California.\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\u003cstrong>S\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>cott Shafer:\u003c/strong> And so, 1992 was really the year that she and others broke through in the so-called “Year of the Woman.” The number of women in the Senate went from two to six.\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo: \u003c/strong>Tripling.\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer:\u003c/strong> Yeah, tripled. Yes, exactly. It’s much higher now, thankfully. But nonetheless, that was really her big splash, I think, on the national scene.\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\u003cstrong>Dianne Feinstein:\u003c/strong> So, Washington, ready or not, here we come.\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo:\u003c/strong> We’re talking about this because, of course, Senator Feinstein is retiring. This marks more than 50 years of public service. A lot of the conversation now, understandably, is about her time as a U.S. senator. But when you look back at her time in San Francisco in the ’70s and ’80s, what stands out to you the most? And what do you want to make sure people don’t forget as they think about her long career?\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer:\u003c/strong> Dianne Feinstein broke glass ceilings. She was a pioneer. She went places that no other woman had. She opened the door to a lot of other women running for office. She was somebody who steadied the ship at a time when the city was in crisis. She guided the city through a terrible, almost unimaginable — today —AIDS epidemic. HIV AIDS was a death sentence for everyone who got it at that time. And she got the city through that. She managed to hold the city together. And someone who was, you know, very competent, not always beloved, not always in line with the liberal values of the city, but someone who tried to do the right thing and broke a lot of glass ceilings along the way.\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo: \u003c/strong>Scott, thanks so much.\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer:\u003c/strong> You’re welcome.\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo:\u003c/strong> That was Scott Shafer, senior editor of KQED’s California Politics and Government Desk. This conversation was cut and edited by producer Maria Esquinca. I added the music and the tape. The audio you heard in this episode was courtesy of San Francisco State’s Bay Area TV Archive, KQED archives and C-SPAN. If you haven’t yet, please consider filling out our listener survey. It takes just eight minutes and it’s a great chance to tell us directly what you like about the show and what you want to hear more of. The Bay is a production of KQED in San Francisco. I’m Alan Montecillo in for Ericka Cruz Guevarra. Talk to you next time.\u003c/div>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"#episode-transcript\">\u003ci>View the full episode transcript.\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\n\u003cp>On Thursday night, Sen. Dianne Feinstein passed away at age 90. Before becoming a U.S. Senator in 1992, she was best known for her time as San Francisco mayor. Today, we revisit an episode with KQED’s Scott Shafer about how she got her start in local politics.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp id=\"embed-code\" class=\"inconsolata\">\n\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"200\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https://playlist.megaphone.fm/?e=KQINC3980513829&light=true\" width=\"100%\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\n\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Links:\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/liveblog/dianne-feinstein-dies\">Senator Dianne Feinstein Dies at 90: Live Updates.\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11962877/11962877-revision-v1\">What Feinstein’s Death Means For Control of the Senate and the Looming Government Shutdown.\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13845645/dianne-feinstein-jello-biafra-san-francisco-punk\">How San Francisco Punk Reacted to Dianne Feinstein in the 1970s.\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-content post-body\">\u003ch2 id=\"episode-transcript\">Episode Transcript\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Ericka Cruz Guevarra:\u003c/b> I’m Ericka Cruz Guevarra and welcome to the Bay. Local news to Keep You Rooted. Condolences and tributes have been pouring in for Senator Dianne Feinstein, who died in her Washington, D.C., home at the age of 90. Feinstein served in the U.S. Senate for more than 30 years while she was in office. She was a champion of gun control and a trailblazer for women in politics. But by the end of her life, she was a controversial figure. Some Democrats who hoped she would step aside for a new generation grew angry and frustrated with her for continuing to stay in office, even as her health declined. At one point, though, Feinstein was the next generation, a woman of many firsts who was breaking glass ceilings for those behind her in local, state and national politics.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Dianne Feinstein: \u003c/b>I look to building San Francisco’s future through leadership, honesty and creativity. So let’s end once and for all the nonsense that a woman is not capable of providing the strength and toughness necessary.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Ericka Cruz Guevarra:\u003c/b> Today, we’re revisiting a conversation from back in March. Our senior editor, Alan Monticello, talks with KQED’s Scott Shafer about Dianne Feinstein’s San Francisco roots and the legacy she leaves behind in the Bay Area. Stay with us.\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo:\u003c/strong> Hi. This is Alan Montecillo, senior editor of The Bay. We’ve been planning this episode about DianneFeinstein for some time now. But a few days ago, we got some breaking news about her. On Thursday, Senator Feinstein announced that she’s been admitted to a hospital in the Bay Area to receive treatment for shingles. In a statement, she said she was diagnosed last month and that she expects to make a full recovery and return to Washington later on in March. For more updates on this and other breaking news stories, check out KQED.org or tune in to 88.5 FM. All right. Here’s the show.\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo:\u003c/strong> I’m Alan Montecillo in for Ericka Cruz Guevarra, and welcome to The Bay. Local news to keep you rooted. By now, you probably know that Senator Dianne Feinstein is retiring at the end of her term next year after representing California in the U.S. Senate since 1992. But before she was in Washington, Feinstein was known best for her time in San Francisco in the seventies and eighties. She led the city through some difficult and turbulent times. She also became well known across the country for being one of just a few women in elected office.\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\u003cstrong>Dianne Feinstein:\u003c/strong> I look to building San Francisco’s future through leadership, honesty and creativity. So, let’s end once and for all the nonsense that a woman is not capable of providing the strength and toughness necessary to do this.\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo:\u003c/strong> Today: when Dianne Feinstein was mayor of San Francisco.\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer:\u003c/strong> Dianne Feinstein was born Diane Goldman in 1933 in San Francisco.\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo: \u003c/strong>Scott Shafer is senior editor of KQED’s California Politics and Government Desk.\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer:\u003c/strong> Her father was a well-known surgeon. Her mother was an immigrant from Russia, a former model. Her parents were both Jewish, but she went to Sacred Heart, which is a Catholic school, very disciplined, you know, very academic. She did not have a happy childhood. She had two younger sisters. Her mother was known to drink a lot. She would fly off into a rage for no particular reason.She learned to be an adult as a young kid because she had to take care of her younger sisters. And I think you can see some of that behavior in her as a political figure, somebody who was sort of in charge. She went to Stanford. She focused on political science. She got involved in student government. Found out she was pretty good at it and liked it. And obviously, that’s what she pursued in 1969.\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo:\u003c/strong> She decides to run for the board of supervisors. I believe this is her first run for office. What are her big issues when she decides to run citywide?\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer:\u003c/strong> She’s always been focused on sort of the nuts and bolts of government. And that was certainly what she was looking at when she was running that first time. She was closely aligned with business groups. She cared a lot about the economy of the city, the level of taxation, services like Muni. It raised a lot of money. She was on television, the very first candidate running for the Board of supervisors in San Francisco that ever actually advertised on TV.\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\u003cstrong>Interviewer:\u003c/strong> What do you think that the new people can do that the old ones haven’t?\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\u003cstrong>Dianne Feinstein:\u003c/strong> Well, I don’t think the board has really done their homework when it comes to taxation. There are other kinds of taxes which are fair.\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer:\u003c/strong> You know, seeing her in those early, early clips, you know, in 1969, I always think of her as a serious-minded politician, somebody who really had her nose to the grindstone and was looking at the budget and reading bills and legislation.\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\u003cstrong>Dianne Feinstein:\u003c/strong> I think we can come up with law enforcement programs that really can afford a greater degree of public protection. And I, for one, intend to speak out very loudly about this pollution of our Bay with our sewage. As you know, when it rains, all of our raw sewage is dumped into the Bay.\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer:\u003c/strong> She very much appealed to sort of the center of San Francisco politics. And she came in first place, which — and then she became the [San Francisco] Board of Supervisors president –the first woman to do that.\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo:\u003c/strong> This was also a time, as you mentioned, where there were just way, way way fewer women in elected office. You mentioned she was the only woman who ran in that supervisor’s race in 1969. How much did that come up when she was campaigning and how did she talk about it at that time?\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer:\u003c/strong> I don’t think she made a big deal of it.\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\u003cstrong>News anchor:\u003c/strong> Dianne Feinstein is the kind of woman many ladies could dislike if she wasn’t so appealing. She does everything well. She is bright, poised, attractive and capable.\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer:\u003c/strong> I don’t think she wanted to draw attention to the fact that she was a woman. If she was asked about it — and she was, you know, later, after she got elected — she would say things like, well, you know, as long as a woman can maintain her femininity and be proper, I think that she can still be a good politician. Just very not wanting to color too far outside the lines.\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\u003cstrong>News anchor:\u003c/strong> Mrs. Feinstein, how do you feel about being a woman involved in politics? Do you think that that’s an asset or a liability, or do you think it’s a factor perhaps in your victory orin your effectiveness?\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\u003cstrong>Dianne Feinstein:\u003c/strong> Well, I think it’s an asset, actually. I think if a woman is able to retain her femininity, if she’s able to use it with taste and wisely, if she also has a good brain and commonsense and uses these ingredients as well, I think she can be enormously effective.\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer:\u003c/strong> And that was something that later in her career, even though she was breaking these glass ceilings, I think a lot of women felt that she didn’t lean into the feminist movement enough.\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo: \u003c/strong>Feinstein gets elected to the board in1969, eventually becomes the board president. She does run for mayor in ’71 and ’75 and loses both times. In 1978, she does become the mayor, but kind of through one of the darkest moments in San Francisco history. I’m talking, of course, about the assassinations of Harvey Milk and George Mosconi. Remind me, walk me through the lead-up to that day. What was going on in San Francisco?\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer:\u003c/strong> Wow. I mean, 1978 as a year was a traumatic year for Dianne Feinstein, personally and professionally. Her husband, Bert, who was the love of her life, by all accounts, died. We had the horrible spectacle of hundreds of people dying in Jonestown.\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\u003cstrong>News anchor:\u003c/strong> I also have to warn you, as we begin this special report, that what you’re about to see almost defies description. And some of you may not want to watch it.\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>… which was a compound down in Guyana in South America. It was led by Jim Jones, who was a preacher in San Francisco, very politically connected.\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\u003cstrong>News anchor:\u003c/strong> As soon as these pictures from Jonestown cleared our newsroom, everybody, even a lot of hardened news people reacted in horror and disbelief. The word on everybody’s lips was shades of Auschwitz.\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer:\u003c/strong> And so the city was reeling. And then just like ten days or so later, shots rang out in city hall. The mayor, George Mosconi, who was a beloved progressive, [was] shot and killed by Dan White, who was a member of the Board of Supervisors. He then walked down the hall, shot and killed Harvey Milk, the first openly gay member of the Board of [Supervisors], and Feinstein found his body.\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo:\u003c/strong> There’s, of course, this very well known clip of Acting Mayor Feinstein having to essentially break this news to the public. What do you remember from that footage?\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Every time I see that footage, it sends a chill up and down my spine. And I’ve seen it many times.\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\u003cstrong>News anchor:\u003c/strong> Both Mayor Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk have been shot and killed.\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\u003cstrong>Crowd:\u003c/strong> [HORRIFIED GASPS FROM CROWD]\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer:\u003c/strong> Her self-control, her looking straight out into the middle distance and breaking the news. I mean, nowadays we all find out about news instantaneously on our phones. But the idea that you could have, you know, an assassinated mayor and an assassinated supervisor in the building and no one knew. So, she delivered the news to a press corps and others who were assembled outside the mayor’s office. And so, what really stands out was just her shock, you know, her grief, but also holding it together and being strong in a moment when the wheels were falling off the city.\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo:\u003c/strong> Does Feinstein ever kind of open up later in life about what that day was like for her?\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer:\u003c/strong> She does. She talked with me and Marisa Lagos on Political Breakdown about it.\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\u003cstrong>Dianne Feinstein:\u003c/strong> It’s still very traumatic for me to look back on candidly. And I would give up anything if they had not happened.\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer:\u003c/strong> Ironically, hours before the assassinations, Dianne Feinstein had mentioned to people that she was thinking of getting out of politics.\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\u003cstrong>Dianne Feinstein:\u003c/strong> I had run for mayor, and I was defeated. And I was convinced I would never be mayor. My husband had died. I had a daughter. And I just thought enough was enough.\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer:\u003c/strong> And Dianne Feinstein herself had been the subject of attempted violence. In 1976, there was a radical anti-capitalist group that planted a bomb outside her house in Pacific Heights. It didn’t go off. She wasn’t hurt. They also shot out her windows in a beach house that she had in Marin. So, she was, you know, no stranger to violence. But I think the level of violence was just too much for so many people in San Francisco to bear. But she held it together.\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo:\u003c/strong> So, Dianne Feinstein becomes the mayor in 1978 in the wake of this horrific tragedy. You’ve already mentioned that this was an extremely chaotic time in San Francisco. I mean, what does she inherit as she steps right into the job?\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer:\u003c/strong> Well, the first thing she has to do is to begin to heal the city, bring the city back together after the assassinations, after Jonestown. And she really focused on the nuts and bolts of city government. One of her big campaigns as mayor early on was to save the cable cars. They needed a lot of repair. They were old. And she said, no, we can’t shut these down. These are an iconic symbol of San Francisco. And she led, you know, a group of businesspeople to raise the money to renovate the cable cars. The other thing I should point out, in terms of taking over as mayor, 1978 was a big year in politics in that voters in November of that year had passed Proposition 13, which was the so-called property tax revolt.\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer:\u003c/strong> And so the finances of cities and counties and state government were sort of thrown up into upheaval. And so mayors, including Feinstein, had to deal with this sort of huge disruption in revenue sources. And that was the kind of thing she focused on. It was those, you know — really meat and potatoes, you know, make sure the potholes are filled, make sure the police department has enough staffing and that sort of thing, make sure the buses are running on time. And it was in that environment that we saw the dawn of the AIDS epidemic, which was landed right on her desk.\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\u003cstrong>News anchor:\u003c/strong> This depression of the immune system can lead to a rare form of cancer, Kaposi’s sarcoma, which shows up as those purple spots. This cancer has a death rate of 80% two years after diagnosis. This is not a benign disease.\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo\u003c/strong>: Yeah, let’s talk about that. Tell me more about Dianne Feinstein’s response to the AIDS crisis in San Francisco.\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer:\u003c/strong> Dianne Feinstein really stepped up during the AIDS epidemic. I mean, it didn’t even have a name at that point. They called it GRID: Gay Related Immune Deficiency. At that point, there were a couple, just a very small number of these mysterious illnesses that had broken out among gay men. It was very troubling. And it, you know, quickly became clear that this was spreading rather fast. And at that time, Ronald Reagan was president. We had a Republican governor, George Deukmejian. And especially the Reagan administration did literally nothing helpful.\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer:\u003c/strong> And so it fell to San Francisco and Mayor Feinstein. And from the very beginning, as early as 1981–82, she put money in the city budget to investigate what was happening and put together the infrastructure of what became known as the San Francisco Model.\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\u003cstrong>P\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>aul Volberding:\u003c/strong> San Francisco got a lot of credit for the San Francisco model of response to the AIDS epidemic. And really, a lot of that can be traced back to Dianne Feinstein’s leadership.\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer:\u003c/strong> People like Paul Volberding, who was a young AIDS doc at San Francisco General Hospital, would go to her and brief her on what was happening.\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\u003cstrong>Paul Volberding:\u003c/strong> We were learning a lot very quickly and she wanted to, and I think she wanted to have policies that reflected the best knowledge at the time. In contrast to some places in the country, she really let that science lead her to her approach to this.\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer:\u003c/strong> She came from a medical background. She had been married to a doctor. Her father was a doctor. She was very interested in data. But when others, like Mayor Koch in New York, were doing nothing or not enough, she really, really embraced it and took the lead on putting together the system that got the city through a very, very dark time.\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\u003cstrong>Paul Volberding:\u003c/strong> When we needed money to, you know, hire more doctors to develop more space at San Francisco General Hospital to bring people together, to look at research questions in the community, that support for that seemed to me to be always easy.\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer:\u003c/strong> The one big thing that she did that was very controversial is San Francisco had gay bathhouses, and even thought he virus hadn’t been discovered yet, it wasn’t clear what was causing AIDS, there was a sense among public health people that whatever it was was being spread by sexual contact among men, and she wanted to close down the bathhouses, and it became a big mess. Ultimately, she got her way. The bathhouses shut down, which I think many would say was the right thing to do.\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo:\u003c/strong> What was her relationship with the gay community like when she was mayor?\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong> Well, you have to, I think, look at it in the context of her time. You know, in the late seventies, there weren’t a lot of openly gay elected officials. You know, Harvey Milk had been shot and killed. It was somewhat risky in many places to even align yourself politically with the gay community. She did that, you know, and so she won support in her early campaigns for supervisor and later, you know, for mayor. However, she wasn’t beloved universally.\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\u003cstrong>News anchor:\u003c/strong> Feinstein is often criticized by gays for not feeling comfortable with the whole subject of homosexuality. Gays attack her for what they consider her inability to control alleged police harassment of gays.\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>She vetoed a piece of legislation that would have created domestic partnerships in San Francisco for same-sex couples. She never rode in the gay Pride parades to this day because I think she’s just so proper.\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\u003cstrong>News anchor:\u003c/strong> Here, she proclaims Lesbian Gay Freedom Week and boosts the gay parade in which she has never personally participated.\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\u003cstrong>Dianne Feinstein:\u003c/strong> [Unintelligible]\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\u003cstrong>S\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>cott Shafer:\u003c/strong> There was a well-known, civic, gay activist who said once about Dianne Feinstein, she doesn’t care what we do in bed as long as we’re in bed by 11 o’clock. So, I would say it was very mixed. And also, the gay community tends to be a lot more liberal on issues. She was for the death penalty. She was very pro-business. But at the same time, I think looking back, she gets, you know, total credit for how she handled the AIDS epidemic.\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo\u003c/strong>: In the end, was she a popular mayor?\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer:\u003c/strong> Absolutely. I mean, I would say there were people who really disliked Dianne Feinstein. I think there were people who felt she was too conservative, that she was kind of a prude. You know, in a city that is known for kind of outrageousness. But I think her time as mayor has aged well. \u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo:\u003c/strong> How and when does she eventually kind of make the leap from the local to the national stage? We know her now as a senator, but how does that leap happen?\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer:\u003c/strong> Well, in some ways, 1984. San Francisco hosted the Democratic National Convention, where Walter Mondale nominates Geraldine Ferraro to be the first woman on a major party ticket. And just before the convention, Dianne Feinstein and Geraldine Ferraro are on the cover of \u003cem>Time\u003c/em> magazine. Their photos, or pictures of them are there with the title “Why Not a Woman for Vice President?” So, by then, she was already developing a national profile. Everything changes in 1991, when Clarence Thomas is nominated by President Bush to be on the U.S. Supreme Court and there are allegations of sexual harassment and worse from Anita Hill.\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\u003cstrong>Anita Hill:\u003c/strong> He talked about pornographic materials depicting individuals with large penises or large breasts involved in various sex acts.\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer:\u003c/strong> The Judiciary Committee, which held hearings into the confirmation of Thomas and which also talked with and interviewed Anita Hill, was all white males, mostly older, including Joe Biden, who was the chair. And they treated Anita Hill disrespectfully.\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\u003cstrong>Joe Biden:\u003c/strong> It is appropriate to ask Professor Hill anything any member wishes to ask her to plumb the depths of her credibility.\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\u003cstrong>Alan Simpson: \u003c/strong>Why in God’s name would you ever speak to a man like that the rest of your life?\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\u003cstrong>Howell Heflin:\u003c/strong> I’ve got to determine what your motivation might be. Are you a scorned woman? Are you interested in writing abook?\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer: \u003c/strong>Clarence Thomas barely got confirmed. I think he got 51 [or 52] votes. And Feinstein and many others saw that as an indication that we needed to get more women into government in Washington.\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\u003cstrong>Dianne Feinstein:\u003c/strong> Tonight, history is being made.\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer:\u003c/strong> Dianne Feinstein, this Jewish woman from San Francisco becomes senator along with Barbara Boxer, who had been in the House of Representatives from Marin.\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\u003cstrong>Dianne Feinstein:\u003c/strong> We will be the Cagney Lacey one-two punch for the state of California.\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\u003cstrong>S\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>cott Shafer:\u003c/strong> And so, 1992 was really the year that she and others broke through in the so-called “Year of the Woman.” The number of women in the Senate went from two to six.\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo: \u003c/strong>Tripling.\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer:\u003c/strong> Yeah, tripled. Yes, exactly. It’s much higher now, thankfully. But nonetheless, that was really her big splash, I think, on the national scene.\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\u003cstrong>Dianne Feinstein:\u003c/strong> So, Washington, ready or not, here we come.\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo:\u003c/strong> We’re talking about this because, of course, Senator Feinstein is retiring. This marks more than 50 years of public service. A lot of the conversation now, understandably, is about her time as a U.S. senator. But when you look back at her time in San Francisco in the ’70s and ’80s, what stands out to you the most? And what do you want to make sure people don’t forget as they think about her long career?\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer:\u003c/strong> Dianne Feinstein broke glass ceilings. She was a pioneer. She went places that no other woman had. She opened the door to a lot of other women running for office. She was somebody who steadied the ship at a time when the city was in crisis. She guided the city through a terrible, almost unimaginable — today —AIDS epidemic. HIV AIDS was a death sentence for everyone who got it at that time. And she got the city through that. She managed to hold the city together. And someone who was, you know, very competent, not always beloved, not always in line with the liberal values of the city, but someone who tried to do the right thing and broke a lot of glass ceilings along the way.\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo: \u003c/strong>Scott, thanks so much.\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\u003cstrong>Scott Shafer:\u003c/strong> You’re welcome.\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo:\u003c/strong> That was Scott Shafer, senior editor of KQED’s California Politics and Government Desk. This conversation was cut and edited by producer Maria Esquinca. I added the music and the tape. The audio you heard in this episode was courtesy of San Francisco State’s Bay Area TV Archive, KQED archives and C-SPAN. If you haven’t yet, please consider filling out our listener survey. It takes just eight minutes and it’s a great chance to tell us directly what you like about the show and what you want to hear more of. The Bay is a production of KQED in San Francisco. I’m Alan Montecillo in for Ericka Cruz Guevarra. Talk to you next time.\u003c/div>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>"
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"content": "\u003cp>Dianne Feinstein, who died Thursday night at the age of 90, was the longest-serving female U.S. senator in history. But even before her 30-year run in the Senate, Feinstein had \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11946670/dianne-feinstein-californias-longest-serving-us-senator-dies-at-age-90\">already had a distinguished career in San Francisco politics, one that also spanned decades\u003c/a>. And over the years, KQED Public Television was often there to capture it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the videos below, footage from the KQED 9 archives captures moments from Feinstein’s early years in San Francisco, beginning with her ascension to the city’s Board of Supervisors in 1969.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Over the last two decades, Feinstein also sat down with KQED for a number of televised interviews. Those exchanges serve as a snapshot of the quickly changing political environment in California and the United States — both for politicians and voters — during that period of time. In those conversations, Feinstein weighed in on everything from Obamacare and her fears about the “radical” nature of the Romney-Ryan presidential ticket, to the Brett Kavanaugh hearings and the election of Donald Trump.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>1970: Feinstein sworn in as San Francisco Supervisor\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In January 1970, Dianne Feinstein was sworn into the San Francisco Board of Supervisors and became its first female president. This footage shows Feinstein introducing her daughter, Katherine Anne and husband Bertram, welcoming Mayor Joseph Alioto to the Board and being formally sworn in. “Let’s adjourn with good thoughts for the 1970s,” Feinstein said at the meeting’s close.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_FTldUbqZg&feature=youtu.be\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Oct. 1978: Feinstein opens Pier 39 with Mayor Moscone\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>“Okay, don’t look into the camera.” In this rough KQED 9 footage from October 1978, which ranges from B-roll to interviews, a costumed Feinstein and Mayor George Moscone are seen cutting the giant ribbon to formally open the Pier 39 tourist attraction in San Francisco. The archival footage also includes scenes of brass bands performing, and workers and onlookers offering their opinions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This video was taken less than two months before \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11708263/remembering-george-moscone-the-peoples-mayor-of-san-francisco\">Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk were assassinated by former supervisor Dan White\u003c/a> inside San Francisco City Hall.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0no9CO-A-jg&feature=youtu.be\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Nov. 27, 1978: Shockwaves from the assassination of Milk and Moscone\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>On Nov. 27, 1978, the day White murdered Milk and Moscone, storied journalist Belva Davis hosted the live show \u003cem>A Closer Look\u003c/em> later that night on KQED 9.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the 45:50 time mark, Davis introduces Acting Mayor Feinstein who joins the program by phone and — after initial technical difficulties — speaks about that day, including her attempts to reach White that morning owing to her fears of a brewing confrontation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When asked if she has a message for the people of San Francisco, Feinstein said, “If ever there was a time to end the divisiveness that’s plagued this city, this is it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l73igO16bsE\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Nov. 27, 1978: Feinstein speaks at candlelight vigil at City Hall following the murders\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Following the Nov. 27 murders of Moscone and Milk, mourners held a moving candlelight vigil from Castro Street to San Francisco City Hall. This KQED footage shows those gathered singing “Kumbaya,” and Feinstein being angrily heckled by some people in the crowd — who are then shushed by others — as she speaks outside City Hall (begins 1:21).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“San Francisco has lost two great leaders, and we question why,” she asked the crowd. “What is in a heart that can turn it to commit this kind of act?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJieV_6I7lE&feature=youtu.be\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>2010 interview: ‘Out of fear comes this kind of belligerence’\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In this 2010 interview with KQED’s \u003cem>This Week in Northern California\u003c/em>, Feinstein spoke to Scott Shafer about the “anger” she was seeing nationally around Obamacare.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She also spoke about why she didn’t believe comprehensive immigration reform in Congress was “dead,” and discussed UC Berkeley law professor Goodwin Liu’s nomination for the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKXJMuiCqRo\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>2012 interview: ‘Democrats really see the handwriting on the wall’\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In Sept. 2017, Belva Davis, of KQED’s \u003cem>This Week in Northern California\u003c/em>, sat down with Feinstein during the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Feinstein spoke about the “radical agenda” of the Republican presidential campaign of Mitt Romney and his running mate Paul Ryan, and weighed in on former Gov. Pete Wilson calling California a “failed state.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ef2rNCBxaWo\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>2017 interview: ‘He appears to be very impetuous’\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In this \u003cem>KQED\u003c/em> \u003cem>Newsroom\u003c/em> interview, Feinstein said the election of President Donald Trump gave her “great pause.” Scott Shafer sat down with the veteran lawmaker in the nation’s Capitol — almost exactly four years before it would be attacked by Trump supporters in the Jan. 6 insurrection — to talk about her hopes for his first 100 days.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1lCZkUddrg\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>2018 interview: ‘What I want to do is be constructive and helpful to our nation’\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>As she appealed to voters to elect her to the Senate for a fifth term, Feinstein spoke to \u003cem>KQED\u003c/em> \u003cem>Newsroom\u003c/em> in Oct. 2018 about her high-profile role in the Brett Kavanaugh Supreme Court hearings — and what she would have done differently given the chance. She also discussed \u003ca href=\"https://www.state.gov/accountability-for-the-murder-of-jamal-khashoggi/\">the murder of journalist and U.S. resident Jamal Khashoggi\u003c/a> in Istanbul’s Saudi Arabian Consulate, and advocated for San Francisco’s Proposition C that aimed to address the city’s homeless issue by taxing big businesses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eTtL4LdWD7k\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Dianne Feinstein, who died Thursday night at the age of 90, was the longest-serving female U.S. senator in history. But even before her 30-year run in the Senate, Feinstein had \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11946670/dianne-feinstein-californias-longest-serving-us-senator-dies-at-age-90\">already had a distinguished career in San Francisco politics, one that also spanned decades\u003c/a>. And over the years, KQED Public Television was often there to capture it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the videos below, footage from the KQED 9 archives captures moments from Feinstein’s early years in San Francisco, beginning with her ascension to the city’s Board of Supervisors in 1969.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Over the last two decades, Feinstein also sat down with KQED for a number of televised interviews. Those exchanges serve as a snapshot of the quickly changing political environment in California and the United States — both for politicians and voters — during that period of time. In those conversations, Feinstein weighed in on everything from Obamacare and her fears about the “radical” nature of the Romney-Ryan presidential ticket, to the Brett Kavanaugh hearings and the election of Donald Trump.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>1970: Feinstein sworn in as San Francisco Supervisor\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In January 1970, Dianne Feinstein was sworn into the San Francisco Board of Supervisors and became its first female president. This footage shows Feinstein introducing her daughter, Katherine Anne and husband Bertram, welcoming Mayor Joseph Alioto to the Board and being formally sworn in. “Let’s adjourn with good thoughts for the 1970s,” Feinstein said at the meeting’s close.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/X_FTldUbqZg'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/X_FTldUbqZg'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Oct. 1978: Feinstein opens Pier 39 with Mayor Moscone\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>“Okay, don’t look into the camera.” In this rough KQED 9 footage from October 1978, which ranges from B-roll to interviews, a costumed Feinstein and Mayor George Moscone are seen cutting the giant ribbon to formally open the Pier 39 tourist attraction in San Francisco. The archival footage also includes scenes of brass bands performing, and workers and onlookers offering their opinions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This video was taken less than two months before \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11708263/remembering-george-moscone-the-peoples-mayor-of-san-francisco\">Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk were assassinated by former supervisor Dan White\u003c/a> inside San Francisco City Hall.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/0no9CO-A-jg'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/0no9CO-A-jg'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Nov. 27, 1978: Shockwaves from the assassination of Milk and Moscone\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>On Nov. 27, 1978, the day White murdered Milk and Moscone, storied journalist Belva Davis hosted the live show \u003cem>A Closer Look\u003c/em> later that night on KQED 9.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the 45:50 time mark, Davis introduces Acting Mayor Feinstein who joins the program by phone and — after initial technical difficulties — speaks about that day, including her attempts to reach White that morning owing to her fears of a brewing confrontation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When asked if she has a message for the people of San Francisco, Feinstein said, “If ever there was a time to end the divisiveness that’s plagued this city, this is it.”\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/l73igO16bsE'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/l73igO16bsE'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Nov. 27, 1978: Feinstein speaks at candlelight vigil at City Hall following the murders\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Following the Nov. 27 murders of Moscone and Milk, mourners held a moving candlelight vigil from Castro Street to San Francisco City Hall. This KQED footage shows those gathered singing “Kumbaya,” and Feinstein being angrily heckled by some people in the crowd — who are then shushed by others — as she speaks outside City Hall (begins 1:21).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“San Francisco has lost two great leaders, and we question why,” she asked the crowd. “What is in a heart that can turn it to commit this kind of act?”\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/wJieV_6I7lE'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/wJieV_6I7lE'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>2010 interview: ‘Out of fear comes this kind of belligerence’\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In this 2010 interview with KQED’s \u003cem>This Week in Northern California\u003c/em>, Feinstein spoke to Scott Shafer about the “anger” she was seeing nationally around Obamacare.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She also spoke about why she didn’t believe comprehensive immigration reform in Congress was “dead,” and discussed UC Berkeley law professor Goodwin Liu’s nomination for the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/eKXJMuiCqRo'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/eKXJMuiCqRo'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>2012 interview: ‘Democrats really see the handwriting on the wall’\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In Sept. 2017, Belva Davis, of KQED’s \u003cem>This Week in Northern California\u003c/em>, sat down with Feinstein during the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Feinstein spoke about the “radical agenda” of the Republican presidential campaign of Mitt Romney and his running mate Paul Ryan, and weighed in on former Gov. Pete Wilson calling California a “failed state.”\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/Ef2rNCBxaWo'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/Ef2rNCBxaWo'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>2017 interview: ‘He appears to be very impetuous’\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In this \u003cem>KQED\u003c/em> \u003cem>Newsroom\u003c/em> interview, Feinstein said the election of President Donald Trump gave her “great pause.” Scott Shafer sat down with the veteran lawmaker in the nation’s Capitol — almost exactly four years before it would be attacked by Trump supporters in the Jan. 6 insurrection — to talk about her hopes for his first 100 days.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/h1lCZkUddrg'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/h1lCZkUddrg'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>2018 interview: ‘What I want to do is be constructive and helpful to our nation’\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>As she appealed to voters to elect her to the Senate for a fifth term, Feinstein spoke to \u003cem>KQED\u003c/em> \u003cem>Newsroom\u003c/em> in Oct. 2018 about her high-profile role in the Brett Kavanaugh Supreme Court hearings — and what she would have done differently given the chance. She also discussed \u003ca href=\"https://www.state.gov/accountability-for-the-murder-of-jamal-khashoggi/\">the murder of journalist and U.S. resident Jamal Khashoggi\u003c/a> in Istanbul’s Saudi Arabian Consulate, and advocated for San Francisco’s Proposition C that aimed to address the city’s homeless issue by taxing big businesses.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/eTtL4LdWD7k'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/eTtL4LdWD7k'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"title": "Senator Dianne Feinstein Dies at Age 90",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>Follow live ongoing coverage: \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/liveblog/dianne-feinstein-dies\">Senator Dianne Feinstein dies at 90: Live Updates\u003c/a>\u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dianne Feinstein, a champion of gun control who broke glass ceilings for women in local, state and national politics, died Thursday night, KQED has confirmed. She was 90 years old.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Sadly, Senator Feinstein passed away last night at her home in Washington, D.C.,” Feinstein’s chief of staff James Sauls wrote in a statement Friday. “Her passing is a great loss for so many, from those who loved and cared for her to the people of California that she dedicated her life to serving.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Feinstein was elected to the U.S. Senate from California in 1992 on a wave of support for female candidates nationwide known as the “Year of the Woman” and went on to become the longest serving U.S. Senator in California history. But her rise in politics began in 1978 when the city was jolted by two assassinations at City Hall. As president of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, it was left to Feinstein to announce the stunning news.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Standing before a crowd of reporters outside the mayor’s office in San Francisco City Hall on November 27, 1978 — long before news traveled around the world instantaneously — Feinstein’s announcement was delivered with both anguish and self-control, an image that would define her political reputation as a strong leader.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11946694\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 683px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11946694\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/GettyImages-1298948404.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"683\" height=\"1024\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/GettyImages-1298948404.jpg 683w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/GettyImages-1298948404-160x240.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 683px) 100vw, 683px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Dianne Feinstein bows her head for a moment of silence in memory of slain Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk, just before the supervisors meeting on the day of the killings, Nov. 27, 1978. \u003ccite>(Jerry Telfer/San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Both Mayor Moscone and Supervisor Milk have been shot and killed,” she said as cries of shock and dismay rang out. “The suspect is Supervisor Dan White.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Minutes earlier, Feinstein found Milk’s body down the hall from her office. It was a day seared into her memory. “I remember leaning over his body. … this is San Francisco, how can this be? How can this be? But it was,” Feinstein \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11701374/i-get-things-done-dianne-feinstein-on-her-history-political-style-and-the-future-of-compromise-in-the-senate\">recounted to KQED in 2018.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Upon Mayor George Moscone’s death, Feinstein became mayor — a job she held for nearly a decade, first as acting mayor before being elected twice to full four-year terms. Former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown — a longtime political ally of hers — said Feinstein’s handling of the assassinations crisis cemented her reputation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was a dramatic demonstration of how, in the face of total and complete disaster, somebody could stand up to settle the ship,” Brown said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“She’s really a healer,” said Bay Area Council CEO Jim Wunderman in 2023 after Feinstein announced her retirement from the Senate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wunderman, who worked for Feinstein at City Hall when she was mayor, said “she first and foremost sees the opportunities to be able to bring people together in very difficult situations to solve extremely challenging problems. And she doesn’t shy away from it. You know, she kind of runs at the problem rather than running away from it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11946782\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1024px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11946782\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2050/12/GettyImages-541891634.jpg\" alt=\"A white woman in a red suit dress speaks at a press conference.\" width=\"1024\" height=\"725\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2050/12/GettyImages-541891634.jpg 1024w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2050/12/GettyImages-541891634-800x566.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2050/12/GettyImages-541891634-1020x722.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2050/12/GettyImages-541891634-160x113.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) speaks as Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) looks on at a news conference on gun control at the US Capitol June 20, 2016 in Washington, DC. \u003ccite>(Alex Wong/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>As mayor, Feinstein governed from the center — winning support from business groups, law enforcement unions and the city’s more moderate-to-conservative voters. In a 2001 interview with C-SPAN, Feinstein attributed her political philosophy to her upbringing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“My mother was a Democrat. My father was a Goldwater Republican. So we had a split family. It made for some very interesting dinner conversations,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dianne Goldman was born in San Francisco in 1933, the oldest of three girls. Her father Leon Goldman was a surgeon and her mother, Betty, was a Russian immigrant who worked as a model. She did not have a particularly happy childhood. Years later Feinstein recounted how her mother would fly into fits of alcohol-fueled rage.[pullquote align=\"right\" size=\"medium\" citation=\"Dianne Feinstein\"]‘You have to rise from your own ashes. You have to learn in the process. And you have to really care. Really care that the government serves the people. That the government is honest. And I really believe that to my depth.’[/pullquote]Feinstein graduated from Stanford University in 1955 after studying political science. She eloped with her first husband, attorney Jack Berman, but they soon divorced. The two had a daughter, Katherine, who took the name of Feinstein’s second husband Bert Feinstein, who died of cancer in 1978.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Feinstein’s first foray into elected office came in 1969 when she ran a successful campaign for the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. By then she had established policy credentials as a member of state and local boards focused on criminal justice issues. In a crowded field of candidates, Feinstein finished first and became the first woman to be president of the board.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Feinstein tried to parlay that early success into higher office, running for mayor of San Francisco in 1971. She came in third. In 1973 she once again became president of the board of supervisors after topping the field. Two years later she waged a second campaign for mayor, but once again finished a disappointing third in an election that was eventually won by State Senator George Moscone.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 1978, just hours before the City Hall assassinations, Feinstein mentioned that she was thinking of leaving politics altogether. The murders changed everything.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As mayor, Feinstein focused largely on the nuts and bolts of running a city. She took a hands-on interest in the workings of local government, regularly showing up at major fires and monitoring police radio calls. When the city’s renowned but aging cable cars were faced with extinction, Feinstein successfully rallied the business community to raise funds to refurbish them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By then the AIDS epidemic was ravaging her city. The federal government under President Ronald Reagan mostly ignored it. As a young physician at San Francisco General Hospital, Dr. Paul Volberding often briefed Mayor Feinstein on what was needed to fight the disease.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I don’t recall any moment in the early epidemic when I was told, ‘No, we can’t do that because we don’t have the resources.’ And that really goes to her leadership and a great credit to her,” said Volberding, who has since retired.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 1984, San Francisco hosted the Democratic National Convention. Feinstein landed on the cover of \u003cem>Time Magazine\u003c/em>, making the short list to become presidential nominee Walter Mondale’s running mate, a position that ultimately went to Geraldine Ferraro.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11946698\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1024px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11946698\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/GettyImages-526599204.jpg\" alt='A white woman speaks to supporters at a convention with signs around her that read \"Dianne\"' width=\"1024\" height=\"699\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/GettyImages-526599204.jpg 1024w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/GettyImages-526599204-800x546.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/GettyImages-526599204-1020x696.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/GettyImages-526599204-160x109.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Dianne Feinstein, then mayor of San Francisco, addresses the Democratic National Convention. She would be elected to the Senate in November of 1992. \u003ccite>(Mark Reinstein/Corbis via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In 1990, after leaving the mayor’s office, Feinstein ran for governor. She won the Democratic primary but lost narrowly in November to Republican U.S. Senator Pete Wilson. But a year later, the political climate changed with the Senate confirmation hearings of Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When law professor Anita Hill accused Thomas of sexual misconduct when they worked together, the Judiciary Committee questioned Hill’s integrity and motivation, as did Democratic Senator Howell Heflin of Alabama.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Are you a scorned woman? Do you have a militant attitude relative to the area of civil rights?” Heflin said in one of many out-of-touch comments by senators that infuriated women.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Feinstein used those widely criticized hearings as a springboard to the U.S. Senate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Many people took a look at that all-male Judiciary Committee and frankly felt they badly botched the job,” Feinstein said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Campaigning for the Senate in San Diego in 1992, Feinstein championed legislation to codify a woman’s right to an abortion into federal law.[aside label=\"Related Stories\" postID=\"news_11941047,news_11941247,news_11942511\"]“The Congress must pass it and the president must sign it. And if he vetoes it, we must override that veto,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Feinstein rode the moment to victory, part of a wave that tripled the number of women in the U.S. Senate from two to six.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In Washington, she championed gun control, overcoming stiff odds to pass a federal ban on assault weapons in 1994. Later that year she almost lost reelection to a self-funded millionaire, Michael Huffington, a Republican member of Congress from Santa Barbara.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In Washington, D.C., Feinstein developed a reputation as a workhorse, someone who did her homework and wasn’t afraid to rock the boat. She sponsored the Desert Protection Act, which successfully protected 9.6 million acres of open space in California, creating among other things the Death Valley and Joshua Tree National Parks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Throughout her career Feinstein had to deal with men who underestimated and talked down to her. In a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on gun violence in 2013, Feinstein chastised Texas Senator Ted Cruz who belittled her understanding of guns.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m not a sixth grader. Senator, I’ve been on this committee for 20 years. I was a mayor for nine years. I walked in. I saw people shot. I’ve looked at bodies that have been shot with these weapons,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2014, over objections from the Obama administration, she took to the Senate floor to release a comprehensive report on torture by the CIA following the 9/11 attacks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11946700\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1024px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11946700\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/GettyImages-451932837.jpg\" alt=\"A white woman in a red suit opens her arms to embrace an African American man in a blue suit on a runway.\" width=\"1024\" height=\"690\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/GettyImages-451932837.jpg 1024w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/GettyImages-451932837-800x539.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/GettyImages-451932837-1020x687.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/GettyImages-451932837-160x108.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Former US President Barack Obama is greeted by Sen. Diane Feinstein (D-Calif.) upon arriving at San Francisco International Airport in San Francisco, on Nov. 25, 2013. \u003ccite>(JEWEL SAMAD/AFP via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Releasing this report is an important step to restore our values and show the world that we are, in fact, a just and lawful society,” Feinstein said on the Senate floor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The 500-page summary report by the Senate Intelligence Committee Feinstein chaired revealed in stark detail CIA mistreatment of prisoners, things like waterboarding and sleep deprivation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tom Blanton, who heads the National Security Archive at George Washington University, says the investigation Feinstein directed made the intelligence community accountable.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think the Senate torture report was probably the high point of Senator Feinstein’s entire Senate career,” Blanton said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11946701\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1024px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11946701\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/GettyImages-460203282.jpg\" alt=\"A white woman smiles while surrounded by journalists holding microphones to her.\" width=\"1024\" height=\"681\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/GettyImages-460203282.jpg 1024w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/GettyImages-460203282-800x532.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/GettyImages-460203282-1020x678.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/GettyImages-460203282-160x106.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, talks with reporters after sharing a report on the CIA and its torture methods, Dec. 9, 2014. \u003ccite>(Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Despite that leadership, Feinstein was often regarded as too conservative, especially for the Democratic Party, especially in California. And the election of Donald Trump in 2016 put Feinstein’s brand of bipartisanship even further out of step within her own party.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By the summer of 2017 Trump’s pattern of lies and racist comments was well established. During an onstage interview at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco, when Feinstein was asked about how Democrats should deal with Trump, her response triggered audible gasps in the audience.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Look, this man is going to be president most likely for the rest of this term. I just hope he has the ability to learn. And if he does, he can be a good president. And that’s my hope,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Her comments prompted critics to say that Feinstein was hopelessly out of touch with her state, which voted overwhelmingly for Hillary Clinton.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11947243\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11947243\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/RS33382_102318_AW_DianeFeinstein_17-qut.jpg\" alt=\"A white woman with a pink blazer jacket and red scarf seated in front of a microphone with a middle aged in a shirt and tie standing but bent over beside her saying something into a microphone.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/RS33382_102318_AW_DianeFeinstein_17-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/RS33382_102318_AW_DianeFeinstein_17-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/RS33382_102318_AW_DianeFeinstein_17-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/RS33382_102318_AW_DianeFeinstein_17-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/RS33382_102318_AW_DianeFeinstein_17-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sen. Diane Feinstein (D-Calif.) during recordings at the KQED studios for tapings of KQED Newsroom and Political Breakdown on Oct. 23, 2018. \u003ccite>(Anne Wernikoff/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Democrats who hoped Feinstein would step aside for a new generation of candidates were disappointed — even angry — when she sought and won another six-year term in 2018 at the age of 85. During her final term in office it was clear to many that Feinstein was not fully up to the task of representing 40 million Californians in the U.S. Media reports detailed concern among her colleagues that Feinstein, who was once a formidable presence in Washington, was losing her short-term memory and her effectiveness as a Senator.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Earlier this year, a serious bout of shingles forced Feinstein to miss nearly a hundred votes while she recovered at home in San Francisco. When she returned to Washington three months later, she appeared even more frail with lingering side effects from shingles that limited her ability to work. Feinstein might have hoped her return to work would silence calls for her to resign, but her obviously diminished state only fueled concerns that she was unable to do the job. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Former aide Jim Lazarus believes her reasons for staying in office, rather than enjoying retirement, were intensely personal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I just don’t think she could see what else to do on a daily, weekly, monthly basis. She felt well enough and alert enough and strong enough to serve,” Lazarus said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the 2001 interview with CSPAN, Feinstein compared herself to the city’s symbol of resilience — the phoenix.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You have to rise from your own ashes. You have to learn in the process. And you have to really care. Really care that the government serves the people. That the government is honest. And I really believe that to my depth,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11947240\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 720px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11947240\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2050/12/gettyimages-1466074311_720.jpg\" alt=\"An older white woman with a blue dress suit seen from the right profile, waist up.\" width=\"720\" height=\"480\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2050/12/gettyimages-1466074311_720.jpg 720w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2050/12/gettyimages-1466074311_720-160x107.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 720px) 100vw, 720px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) leaves the Senate Chamber following a vote in the US Capitol on Feb. 14, 2023 in Washington, DC, the day Feinstein announced that she will not seek reelection in 2024. \u003ccite>(Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Feinstein’s most enduring legacy may be that she opened more doors for women in politics.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Malia Cohen, who served on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors before becoming State Controller in 2022, remembers meeting Feinstein at City Hall on a third grade field trip, where Feinstein told her class one of \u003cem>them\u003c/em> could be mayor one day.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I believe that I’m standing on her shoulders. And I wouldn’t be here without her leadership,” Cohen said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While some Democrats felt Feinstein was too moderate and stayed in office too long, she’ll also be remembered as a woman who led her city through moments of extraordinary grief and crises, and became an effective champion for important national issues in the U.S. Senate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "A champion of gun control and a trailblazer for women in federal politics, Dianne Feinstein served as senator representing California since 1992. Her death comes after a series of health crises that called Feinstein's ability to carry out her duties into question, with some members of the Democratic Party having called for her to step down.",
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"title": "Senator Dianne Feinstein Dies at Age 90 | KQED",
"description": "A champion of gun control and a trailblazer for women in federal politics, Dianne Feinstein served as senator representing California since 1992. Her death comes after a series of health crises that called Feinstein's ability to carry out her duties into question, with some members of the Democratic Party having called for her to step down.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>Follow live ongoing coverage: \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/liveblog/dianne-feinstein-dies\">Senator Dianne Feinstein dies at 90: Live Updates\u003c/a>\u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dianne Feinstein, a champion of gun control who broke glass ceilings for women in local, state and national politics, died Thursday night, KQED has confirmed. She was 90 years old.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Sadly, Senator Feinstein passed away last night at her home in Washington, D.C.,” Feinstein’s chief of staff James Sauls wrote in a statement Friday. “Her passing is a great loss for so many, from those who loved and cared for her to the people of California that she dedicated her life to serving.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Feinstein was elected to the U.S. Senate from California in 1992 on a wave of support for female candidates nationwide known as the “Year of the Woman” and went on to become the longest serving U.S. Senator in California history. But her rise in politics began in 1978 when the city was jolted by two assassinations at City Hall. As president of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, it was left to Feinstein to announce the stunning news.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Standing before a crowd of reporters outside the mayor’s office in San Francisco City Hall on November 27, 1978 — long before news traveled around the world instantaneously — Feinstein’s announcement was delivered with both anguish and self-control, an image that would define her political reputation as a strong leader.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11946694\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 683px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11946694\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/GettyImages-1298948404.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"683\" height=\"1024\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/GettyImages-1298948404.jpg 683w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/GettyImages-1298948404-160x240.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 683px) 100vw, 683px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Dianne Feinstein bows her head for a moment of silence in memory of slain Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk, just before the supervisors meeting on the day of the killings, Nov. 27, 1978. \u003ccite>(Jerry Telfer/San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Both Mayor Moscone and Supervisor Milk have been shot and killed,” she said as cries of shock and dismay rang out. “The suspect is Supervisor Dan White.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Minutes earlier, Feinstein found Milk’s body down the hall from her office. It was a day seared into her memory. “I remember leaning over his body. … this is San Francisco, how can this be? How can this be? But it was,” Feinstein \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11701374/i-get-things-done-dianne-feinstein-on-her-history-political-style-and-the-future-of-compromise-in-the-senate\">recounted to KQED in 2018.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Upon Mayor George Moscone’s death, Feinstein became mayor — a job she held for nearly a decade, first as acting mayor before being elected twice to full four-year terms. Former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown — a longtime political ally of hers — said Feinstein’s handling of the assassinations crisis cemented her reputation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was a dramatic demonstration of how, in the face of total and complete disaster, somebody could stand up to settle the ship,” Brown said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“She’s really a healer,” said Bay Area Council CEO Jim Wunderman in 2023 after Feinstein announced her retirement from the Senate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wunderman, who worked for Feinstein at City Hall when she was mayor, said “she first and foremost sees the opportunities to be able to bring people together in very difficult situations to solve extremely challenging problems. And she doesn’t shy away from it. You know, she kind of runs at the problem rather than running away from it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11946782\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1024px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11946782\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2050/12/GettyImages-541891634.jpg\" alt=\"A white woman in a red suit dress speaks at a press conference.\" width=\"1024\" height=\"725\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2050/12/GettyImages-541891634.jpg 1024w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2050/12/GettyImages-541891634-800x566.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2050/12/GettyImages-541891634-1020x722.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2050/12/GettyImages-541891634-160x113.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) speaks as Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) looks on at a news conference on gun control at the US Capitol June 20, 2016 in Washington, DC. \u003ccite>(Alex Wong/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>As mayor, Feinstein governed from the center — winning support from business groups, law enforcement unions and the city’s more moderate-to-conservative voters. In a 2001 interview with C-SPAN, Feinstein attributed her political philosophy to her upbringing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“My mother was a Democrat. My father was a Goldwater Republican. So we had a split family. It made for some very interesting dinner conversations,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dianne Goldman was born in San Francisco in 1933, the oldest of three girls. Her father Leon Goldman was a surgeon and her mother, Betty, was a Russian immigrant who worked as a model. She did not have a particularly happy childhood. Years later Feinstein recounted how her mother would fly into fits of alcohol-fueled rage.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Feinstein graduated from Stanford University in 1955 after studying political science. She eloped with her first husband, attorney Jack Berman, but they soon divorced. The two had a daughter, Katherine, who took the name of Feinstein’s second husband Bert Feinstein, who died of cancer in 1978.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Feinstein’s first foray into elected office came in 1969 when she ran a successful campaign for the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. By then she had established policy credentials as a member of state and local boards focused on criminal justice issues. In a crowded field of candidates, Feinstein finished first and became the first woman to be president of the board.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Feinstein tried to parlay that early success into higher office, running for mayor of San Francisco in 1971. She came in third. In 1973 she once again became president of the board of supervisors after topping the field. Two years later she waged a second campaign for mayor, but once again finished a disappointing third in an election that was eventually won by State Senator George Moscone.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 1978, just hours before the City Hall assassinations, Feinstein mentioned that she was thinking of leaving politics altogether. The murders changed everything.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As mayor, Feinstein focused largely on the nuts and bolts of running a city. She took a hands-on interest in the workings of local government, regularly showing up at major fires and monitoring police radio calls. When the city’s renowned but aging cable cars were faced with extinction, Feinstein successfully rallied the business community to raise funds to refurbish them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By then the AIDS epidemic was ravaging her city. The federal government under President Ronald Reagan mostly ignored it. As a young physician at San Francisco General Hospital, Dr. Paul Volberding often briefed Mayor Feinstein on what was needed to fight the disease.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I don’t recall any moment in the early epidemic when I was told, ‘No, we can’t do that because we don’t have the resources.’ And that really goes to her leadership and a great credit to her,” said Volberding, who has since retired.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 1984, San Francisco hosted the Democratic National Convention. Feinstein landed on the cover of \u003cem>Time Magazine\u003c/em>, making the short list to become presidential nominee Walter Mondale’s running mate, a position that ultimately went to Geraldine Ferraro.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11946698\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1024px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11946698\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/GettyImages-526599204.jpg\" alt='A white woman speaks to supporters at a convention with signs around her that read \"Dianne\"' width=\"1024\" height=\"699\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/GettyImages-526599204.jpg 1024w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/GettyImages-526599204-800x546.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/GettyImages-526599204-1020x696.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/GettyImages-526599204-160x109.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Dianne Feinstein, then mayor of San Francisco, addresses the Democratic National Convention. She would be elected to the Senate in November of 1992. \u003ccite>(Mark Reinstein/Corbis via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In 1990, after leaving the mayor’s office, Feinstein ran for governor. She won the Democratic primary but lost narrowly in November to Republican U.S. Senator Pete Wilson. But a year later, the political climate changed with the Senate confirmation hearings of Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When law professor Anita Hill accused Thomas of sexual misconduct when they worked together, the Judiciary Committee questioned Hill’s integrity and motivation, as did Democratic Senator Howell Heflin of Alabama.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Are you a scorned woman? Do you have a militant attitude relative to the area of civil rights?” Heflin said in one of many out-of-touch comments by senators that infuriated women.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Feinstein used those widely criticized hearings as a springboard to the U.S. Senate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Many people took a look at that all-male Judiciary Committee and frankly felt they badly botched the job,” Feinstein said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Campaigning for the Senate in San Diego in 1992, Feinstein championed legislation to codify a woman’s right to an abortion into federal law.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“The Congress must pass it and the president must sign it. And if he vetoes it, we must override that veto,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Feinstein rode the moment to victory, part of a wave that tripled the number of women in the U.S. Senate from two to six.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In Washington, she championed gun control, overcoming stiff odds to pass a federal ban on assault weapons in 1994. Later that year she almost lost reelection to a self-funded millionaire, Michael Huffington, a Republican member of Congress from Santa Barbara.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In Washington, D.C., Feinstein developed a reputation as a workhorse, someone who did her homework and wasn’t afraid to rock the boat. She sponsored the Desert Protection Act, which successfully protected 9.6 million acres of open space in California, creating among other things the Death Valley and Joshua Tree National Parks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Throughout her career Feinstein had to deal with men who underestimated and talked down to her. In a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on gun violence in 2013, Feinstein chastised Texas Senator Ted Cruz who belittled her understanding of guns.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m not a sixth grader. Senator, I’ve been on this committee for 20 years. I was a mayor for nine years. I walked in. I saw people shot. I’ve looked at bodies that have been shot with these weapons,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2014, over objections from the Obama administration, she took to the Senate floor to release a comprehensive report on torture by the CIA following the 9/11 attacks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11946700\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1024px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11946700\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/GettyImages-451932837.jpg\" alt=\"A white woman in a red suit opens her arms to embrace an African American man in a blue suit on a runway.\" width=\"1024\" height=\"690\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/GettyImages-451932837.jpg 1024w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/GettyImages-451932837-800x539.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/GettyImages-451932837-1020x687.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/GettyImages-451932837-160x108.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Former US President Barack Obama is greeted by Sen. Diane Feinstein (D-Calif.) upon arriving at San Francisco International Airport in San Francisco, on Nov. 25, 2013. \u003ccite>(JEWEL SAMAD/AFP via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Releasing this report is an important step to restore our values and show the world that we are, in fact, a just and lawful society,” Feinstein said on the Senate floor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The 500-page summary report by the Senate Intelligence Committee Feinstein chaired revealed in stark detail CIA mistreatment of prisoners, things like waterboarding and sleep deprivation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tom Blanton, who heads the National Security Archive at George Washington University, says the investigation Feinstein directed made the intelligence community accountable.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think the Senate torture report was probably the high point of Senator Feinstein’s entire Senate career,” Blanton said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11946701\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1024px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11946701\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/GettyImages-460203282.jpg\" alt=\"A white woman smiles while surrounded by journalists holding microphones to her.\" width=\"1024\" height=\"681\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/GettyImages-460203282.jpg 1024w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/GettyImages-460203282-800x532.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/GettyImages-460203282-1020x678.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/GettyImages-460203282-160x106.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, talks with reporters after sharing a report on the CIA and its torture methods, Dec. 9, 2014. \u003ccite>(Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Despite that leadership, Feinstein was often regarded as too conservative, especially for the Democratic Party, especially in California. And the election of Donald Trump in 2016 put Feinstein’s brand of bipartisanship even further out of step within her own party.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By the summer of 2017 Trump’s pattern of lies and racist comments was well established. During an onstage interview at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco, when Feinstein was asked about how Democrats should deal with Trump, her response triggered audible gasps in the audience.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Look, this man is going to be president most likely for the rest of this term. I just hope he has the ability to learn. And if he does, he can be a good president. And that’s my hope,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Her comments prompted critics to say that Feinstein was hopelessly out of touch with her state, which voted overwhelmingly for Hillary Clinton.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11947243\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11947243\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/RS33382_102318_AW_DianeFeinstein_17-qut.jpg\" alt=\"A white woman with a pink blazer jacket and red scarf seated in front of a microphone with a middle aged in a shirt and tie standing but bent over beside her saying something into a microphone.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/RS33382_102318_AW_DianeFeinstein_17-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/RS33382_102318_AW_DianeFeinstein_17-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/RS33382_102318_AW_DianeFeinstein_17-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/RS33382_102318_AW_DianeFeinstein_17-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/RS33382_102318_AW_DianeFeinstein_17-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sen. Diane Feinstein (D-Calif.) during recordings at the KQED studios for tapings of KQED Newsroom and Political Breakdown on Oct. 23, 2018. \u003ccite>(Anne Wernikoff/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Democrats who hoped Feinstein would step aside for a new generation of candidates were disappointed — even angry — when she sought and won another six-year term in 2018 at the age of 85. During her final term in office it was clear to many that Feinstein was not fully up to the task of representing 40 million Californians in the U.S. Media reports detailed concern among her colleagues that Feinstein, who was once a formidable presence in Washington, was losing her short-term memory and her effectiveness as a Senator.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Earlier this year, a serious bout of shingles forced Feinstein to miss nearly a hundred votes while she recovered at home in San Francisco. When she returned to Washington three months later, she appeared even more frail with lingering side effects from shingles that limited her ability to work. Feinstein might have hoped her return to work would silence calls for her to resign, but her obviously diminished state only fueled concerns that she was unable to do the job. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Former aide Jim Lazarus believes her reasons for staying in office, rather than enjoying retirement, were intensely personal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I just don’t think she could see what else to do on a daily, weekly, monthly basis. She felt well enough and alert enough and strong enough to serve,” Lazarus said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the 2001 interview with CSPAN, Feinstein compared herself to the city’s symbol of resilience — the phoenix.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You have to rise from your own ashes. You have to learn in the process. And you have to really care. Really care that the government serves the people. That the government is honest. And I really believe that to my depth,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11947240\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 720px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11947240\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2050/12/gettyimages-1466074311_720.jpg\" alt=\"An older white woman with a blue dress suit seen from the right profile, waist up.\" width=\"720\" height=\"480\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2050/12/gettyimages-1466074311_720.jpg 720w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2050/12/gettyimages-1466074311_720-160x107.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 720px) 100vw, 720px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) leaves the Senate Chamber following a vote in the US Capitol on Feb. 14, 2023 in Washington, DC, the day Feinstein announced that she will not seek reelection in 2024. \u003ccite>(Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Feinstein’s most enduring legacy may be that she opened more doors for women in politics.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Malia Cohen, who served on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors before becoming State Controller in 2022, remembers meeting Feinstein at City Hall on a third grade field trip, where Feinstein told her class one of \u003cem>them\u003c/em> could be mayor one day.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I believe that I’m standing on her shoulders. And I wouldn’t be here without her leadership,” Cohen said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While some Democrats felt Feinstein was too moderate and stayed in office too long, she’ll also be remembered as a woman who led her city through moments of extraordinary grief and crises, and became an effective champion for important national issues in the U.S. Senate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>San Francisco’s public safety committee on Thursday unanimously agreed to update \u003ca href=\"https://sfgov.legistar.com/View.ashx?M=F&ID=12319780&GUID=CA6595C0-988F-4799-BE71-66A07E31E2D1\">the city’s police code\u003c/a> to prohibit armed security guards from drawing firearms to protect property.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The vote comes nearly five months after \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11949158/a-tragedy-of-san-franciscos-making-s-f-chronicles-nuala-bishari-on-the-killing-of-banko-brown\">Banko Brown was shot and killed\u003c/a> by a security guard at a Walgreens in San Francisco for \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11949558/district-attorney-releases-video-of-banko-brown-shooting-at-walgreens-wont-files-charges-against-security-gaurd\">allegedly stealing $14 worth of candy\u003c/a>. The ordinance amending the police code now heads to the full board of supervisors for approval.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We heard some of the pain from Banko’s family and the LGBTQ community, and we tried to find ways to honor Banko’s memory and prevent something like this in the future,” said Supervisor Dean Preston, who authored the ordinance. “This is unacceptable. I strongly believe that no one should have to die just because they are suspected of stealing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>San Francisco’s \u003ca href=\"https://codelibrary.amlegal.com/codes/san_francisco/latest/sf_police/0-0-0-6134\">police code\u003c/a> currently prohibits private security guards from drawing a handgun except in response to a “specific threat to person and/or property.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The ordinance supervisors moved forward on Thursday would remove any reference to property as an acceptable reason to use force, meaning that security guards could only use guns to protect a person if there is a clear threat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The proposed changes would bring San Francisco’s laws in alignment with the state, which orders armed security guards to not draw weapons unless there is an imminent threat to human life.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It would also match security guards’ standards with the city’s sworn police officers, who similarly are directed to only draw weapons if there is a clear threat to a person’s life.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is about the use of deadly force. It makes no sense whatsoever that we would have a different standard that would be more permissive for property when sworn officers have more rigorous standards,” said Supervisor Matt Dorsey. “I’m happy to support this.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=news_11952689,news_11952779,news_11952857 label='Security Guards']Supervisor Catherine Stefani, who has long been an advocate for gun violence prevention, called the ordinance an “important step.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The way the city regulates private security is absolutely critical,” Stefani said. “I’m concerned about the lack of oversight for some of these private security guards.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Private security guards outnumber sworn police officers by nearly five-to-one in San Francisco, according to Stefani.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Under the Private Security Services Act, security guards in California are required to earn a permit for carrying a firearm. State law also requires armed security guards to watch about \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11952689/they-carry-weapons-so-why-dont-security-guards-have-to-get-use-of-force-training\">four hours of training videos\u003c/a> — but those are mostly focused on weapons of mass destruction, rather than appropriate use of force or de-escalation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California’s Bureau of Security and Investigative Services, which oversees security guard training, is currently developing new training programs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Geoffrea Morris, attorney and co-founder of Black Women Revolt Against Domestic Violence, praised the city’s actions on Thursday. “Human lives should always be protected over property,” Morris said during public comment. “Justice for Banko Brown does not stop with this amendment.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other community members, however, shared hesitation over the amendment, citing concerns over retail theft and violence. Reported robberies in San Francisco in September 2023 are up nearly 12% compared to this time last year, according to \u003ca href=\"https://www.sanfranciscopolice.org/stay-safe/crime-data/crime-dashboard\">police data\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I completely agree with the sentiment behind this, but I think we need to look at why this is happening,” said a San Francisco resident named Adam during public comment. “We don’t have the police force interested in protecting stores, the people, etc. And maybe there is another answer for that. Maybe we get non-police resources. But the fact of the matter is that we don’t have that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Several supervisors expressed how the ordinance to amend the police code is only a start to addressing some of the challenges over public safety and armed security guards in the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Supervisor Joel Engardio, who co-sponsored the legislation, questioned whether it made sense for private security to have firearms and what degree of training people in those roles must complete.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have these regulations that are often out of step with state law,” Supervisor Preston said. “We felt some urgency to move on this narrow but important issue, but I think there is certainly more to be done.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>San Francisco’s public safety committee on Thursday unanimously agreed to update \u003ca href=\"https://sfgov.legistar.com/View.ashx?M=F&ID=12319780&GUID=CA6595C0-988F-4799-BE71-66A07E31E2D1\">the city’s police code\u003c/a> to prohibit armed security guards from drawing firearms to protect property.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The vote comes nearly five months after \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11949158/a-tragedy-of-san-franciscos-making-s-f-chronicles-nuala-bishari-on-the-killing-of-banko-brown\">Banko Brown was shot and killed\u003c/a> by a security guard at a Walgreens in San Francisco for \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11949558/district-attorney-releases-video-of-banko-brown-shooting-at-walgreens-wont-files-charges-against-security-gaurd\">allegedly stealing $14 worth of candy\u003c/a>. The ordinance amending the police code now heads to the full board of supervisors for approval.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We heard some of the pain from Banko’s family and the LGBTQ community, and we tried to find ways to honor Banko’s memory and prevent something like this in the future,” said Supervisor Dean Preston, who authored the ordinance. “This is unacceptable. I strongly believe that no one should have to die just because they are suspected of stealing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>San Francisco’s \u003ca href=\"https://codelibrary.amlegal.com/codes/san_francisco/latest/sf_police/0-0-0-6134\">police code\u003c/a> currently prohibits private security guards from drawing a handgun except in response to a “specific threat to person and/or property.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The ordinance supervisors moved forward on Thursday would remove any reference to property as an acceptable reason to use force, meaning that security guards could only use guns to protect a person if there is a clear threat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The proposed changes would bring San Francisco’s laws in alignment with the state, which orders armed security guards to not draw weapons unless there is an imminent threat to human life.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It would also match security guards’ standards with the city’s sworn police officers, who similarly are directed to only draw weapons if there is a clear threat to a person’s life.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is about the use of deadly force. It makes no sense whatsoever that we would have a different standard that would be more permissive for property when sworn officers have more rigorous standards,” said Supervisor Matt Dorsey. “I’m happy to support this.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Supervisor Catherine Stefani, who has long been an advocate for gun violence prevention, called the ordinance an “important step.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The way the city regulates private security is absolutely critical,” Stefani said. “I’m concerned about the lack of oversight for some of these private security guards.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Private security guards outnumber sworn police officers by nearly five-to-one in San Francisco, according to Stefani.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Under the Private Security Services Act, security guards in California are required to earn a permit for carrying a firearm. State law also requires armed security guards to watch about \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11952689/they-carry-weapons-so-why-dont-security-guards-have-to-get-use-of-force-training\">four hours of training videos\u003c/a> — but those are mostly focused on weapons of mass destruction, rather than appropriate use of force or de-escalation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California’s Bureau of Security and Investigative Services, which oversees security guard training, is currently developing new training programs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Geoffrea Morris, attorney and co-founder of Black Women Revolt Against Domestic Violence, praised the city’s actions on Thursday. “Human lives should always be protected over property,” Morris said during public comment. “Justice for Banko Brown does not stop with this amendment.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other community members, however, shared hesitation over the amendment, citing concerns over retail theft and violence. Reported robberies in San Francisco in September 2023 are up nearly 12% compared to this time last year, according to \u003ca href=\"https://www.sanfranciscopolice.org/stay-safe/crime-data/crime-dashboard\">police data\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I completely agree with the sentiment behind this, but I think we need to look at why this is happening,” said a San Francisco resident named Adam during public comment. “We don’t have the police force interested in protecting stores, the people, etc. And maybe there is another answer for that. Maybe we get non-police resources. But the fact of the matter is that we don’t have that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Several supervisors expressed how the ordinance to amend the police code is only a start to addressing some of the challenges over public safety and armed security guards in the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Supervisor Joel Engardio, who co-sponsored the legislation, questioned whether it made sense for private security to have firearms and what degree of training people in those roles must complete.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have these regulations that are often out of step with state law,” Supervisor Preston said. “We felt some urgency to move on this narrow but important issue, but I think there is certainly more to be done.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>Philanthropist Daniel Lurie, who founded the anti-poverty organization Tipping Point Community, announced Tuesday that he will run for mayor of San Francisco, challenging incumbent \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101893348/s-f-mayor-london-breed-on-how-to-prevent-an-economic-doom-loop-and-her-new-budget\">London Breed\u003c/a> in next year’s election at a time of widespread dissatisfaction with city government.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I fundamentally believe we are facing a crisis in leadership and the direction that we’re headed is deeply concerning to me,” Lurie told KQED. “I really believe that if we continue in this direction, that my children will not love San Francisco the way that I always have.” [pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Daniel Lurie, San Francisco mayoral candidate\"]‘I fundamentally believe we are facing a crisis in leadership and the direction that we’re headed is deeply concerning to me.’[/pullquote] The 46-year-old, who was born and raised in San Francisco, is heir to the Levi Strauss fortune through his mother, Mimi Haas. He says his top priority as mayor would be public safety, adding that open drug dealing and property crimes in parts of the city creates the feeling that “there are no rules — there is this sense of disorder and chaos that we are all feeling.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The way Lurie sees it, Mayor Breed has failed to lead a concerted, organized effort against crime.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have a serious lack of coordination across the criminal justice system,” he said. “We have department heads who are off doing whatever it is that they want and they’re siloed.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>His pledge to hold weekly department head meetings in the mayor’s office is unlikely to ignite a groundswell of support for Lurie’s candidacy. But his campaign is hoping that given widespread discontent with city government, Lurie will appeal to voters who simply want better results on key problems facing San Francisco.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If there is a lane that is more about effectiveness and good government, that’s his lane,” said Lurie’s pollster David Binder.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lurie has a long way to go in raising his name ID among voters, but he’ll have time before the November 2024 election. Binder thinks Lurie’s work with Tipping Point — addressing poverty, education and homelessness, among other things — will get voters’ attention.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It provides an opportunity for someone like Daniel really coming from the outside, not being an elected official to take an interest in curiosity among the voters,” Binder said.\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Binder said Lurie will try to avoid defining himself as progressive or moderate, but he might find that difficult in the world of San Francisco politics.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=news_11959648 hero='https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/20230823-HomelessLawsuit-05-JY-KQED-1020x680.jpg']In an interview with KQED, for example, Lurie said he supported the recall of three San Francisco School Board members in 2022. But when asked whether he supported the recall of ousted District Attorney Chesa Boudin, Lurie pivoted to say he supported Suzy Loftus — Breed’s appointee to the position — whom Boudin narrowly defeated when she faced voters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pressed on his position, Lurie said he \u003cem>did\u003c/em> vote to recall Boudin, adding that while he supports criminal justice reform “I think how [Boudin] went about [running the DA’s office] was kind of blowing up the system and not having a plan in place to fill that system.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On dealing with the city’s large unhoused population, an issue that has vexed San Francisco mayors since the 1980s, Lurie offered few specifics or new ideas, saying it was important to create more shelter beds and hold organizations funded by the city accountable for better results.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lurie will have plenty of time to sharpen his positions and ideas — the election is more than a year away — and present himself as someone willing to shake up the status quo.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m going to be able to look at these issues and solutions with a fresh perspective. And I will not be beholden to interests that are holding our city back,” Lurie said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11962480\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11962480\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/230926-DANIEL-LURIE-MD-04-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/230926-DANIEL-LURIE-MD-04-KQED.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/230926-DANIEL-LURIE-MD-04-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/230926-DANIEL-LURIE-MD-04-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/230926-DANIEL-LURIE-MD-04-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/230926-DANIEL-LURIE-MD-04-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Supporters of Daniel Lurie hold up signs as he announces his candidacy for Mayor of San Francisco at the Portrero Hill Neighborhood House in San Francisco on Sept. 26, 2023. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But Maggie Muir, who is managing Breed’s reelection campaign, says a political outsider like Lurie will have to convince voters he’s up to the challenge of managing a city like San Francisco with its $14 billion budget and byzantine bureaucracy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think the issue with a candidate like Daniel Lurie, who may have great intentions and be a real nice guy, is he essentially has no experience, or the level of experience needed to make progress on the challenges that are facing the city,” Muir said. “He’s never had to address and resolve issues at this level of seriousness and complexity.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Dr. Nadine Burke Harris, founder of the Bayview Child Health Center in San Francisco, noted that Lurie’s Tipping Point foundation was an early supporter of that effort and the Center for Youth Wellness, an organization she started later. Harris said Lurie not only helped fund programs addressing hardships the city faces, but also demanded accountability and results.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Harris said Lurie would be “a fantastic mayor.” [pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Maggie Muir, reelection campaign manager, London Breed\"]‘I think the issue with a candidate like Daniel Lurie, who may have great intentions and be a real nice guy, is he essentially has no experience or the level of experience needed to make progress on the challenges that are facing the city.’[/pullquote]“He cares deeply, deeply, deeply and passionately about the city of San Francisco and its people and its future,” Harris said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Harris, a pediatrician and the former surgeon general of California, said Lurie has the skills to be an effective leader. “He’s smart. He knows how to get things done. He knows how to bring people together. And I think that he’s a good bridge,” Harris said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Harris added that previously she supported Breed and voted for her, but while she “respects and admires her tremendously on a personal level, I think San Francisco needs new leadership.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While Lurie has never before sought elected office, he’s been active for years in civic affairs. In 2013, he spearheaded the city’s successful effort to host the 50th Super Bowl. Then-Mayor Ed Lee then tapped him to chair the Bay Area Super Bowl 50 Host Committee, where he helped raise $13 million to invest in lower-income communities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lurie considered running for mayor in 2019 but ultimately chose not to because, he said, he knew London Breed and was inspired by her candidacy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I was really excited about the prospect of Mayor Breed. … to see a woman in charge, a woman leading our city. And I was very hopeful and that’s why I decided not to run,” Lurie said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He says running against Breed now isn’t personal but rather that “this is about our city and people.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Polls show city residents overwhelmingly believe San Francisco is “on the wrong track” and heading in the wrong direction, and Mayor Breed’s approval ratings are well below 50% — a warning sign for incumbents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Veteran campaign consultant Eric Jaye, who has worked on numerous mayoral campaigns, including ones for Gavin Newsom and Willie Brown, is skeptical of Lurie’s candidacy and message, calling him “a lovely person who means well,” but doubts he has “the steely resolve to take on the corrupt administration, the corrupt and failing cartel that runs our city and create actual change.”[aside label='More Around San Francisco' tag='san-francisco-police-department']“He has no history of making hard decisions, of being willing to make enemies, of being willing to take on powerful forces from any corner,” Jaye said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In addition to Lurie, San Francisco Supervisor Ahsha Safaí, who like Breed is relatively moderate, has also filed to run. More than a dozen other less well-known candidates are running as well.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>San Francisco uses ranked choice voting to elect its mayor, and pollster Binder thinks that could help Lurie.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think that benefits him because he’s more likely to get the second and third choice votes from those who are picking someone else for first choice rather than the mayor,” Binder said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While Breed is currently unpopular with voters, her positions on many key issues — for example taking a tougher approach to open-air fentanyl dealing and homeless encampments and increasing police department staffing — are in line with a significant segment of the population.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The question she’ll have to answer is whether or not she can present a vision for the city and convince voters she can deliver on it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Philanthropist Daniel Lurie, who founded the anti-poverty organization Tipping Point Community, announced Tuesday that he will run for mayor of San Francisco, challenging incumbent \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101893348/s-f-mayor-london-breed-on-how-to-prevent-an-economic-doom-loop-and-her-new-budget\">London Breed\u003c/a> in next year’s election at a time of widespread dissatisfaction with city government.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I fundamentally believe we are facing a crisis in leadership and the direction that we’re headed is deeply concerning to me,” Lurie told KQED. “I really believe that if we continue in this direction, that my children will not love San Francisco the way that I always have.” \u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp> The 46-year-old, who was born and raised in San Francisco, is heir to the Levi Strauss fortune through his mother, Mimi Haas. He says his top priority as mayor would be public safety, adding that open drug dealing and property crimes in parts of the city creates the feeling that “there are no rules — there is this sense of disorder and chaos that we are all feeling.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The way Lurie sees it, Mayor Breed has failed to lead a concerted, organized effort against crime.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have a serious lack of coordination across the criminal justice system,” he said. “We have department heads who are off doing whatever it is that they want and they’re siloed.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>His pledge to hold weekly department head meetings in the mayor’s office is unlikely to ignite a groundswell of support for Lurie’s candidacy. But his campaign is hoping that given widespread discontent with city government, Lurie will appeal to voters who simply want better results on key problems facing San Francisco.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If there is a lane that is more about effectiveness and good government, that’s his lane,” said Lurie’s pollster David Binder.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lurie has a long way to go in raising his name ID among voters, but he’ll have time before the November 2024 election. Binder thinks Lurie’s work with Tipping Point — addressing poverty, education and homelessness, among other things — will get voters’ attention.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It provides an opportunity for someone like Daniel really coming from the outside, not being an elected official to take an interest in curiosity among the voters,” Binder said.\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Binder said Lurie will try to avoid defining himself as progressive or moderate, but he might find that difficult in the world of San Francisco politics.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>In an interview with KQED, for example, Lurie said he supported the recall of three San Francisco School Board members in 2022. But when asked whether he supported the recall of ousted District Attorney Chesa Boudin, Lurie pivoted to say he supported Suzy Loftus — Breed’s appointee to the position — whom Boudin narrowly defeated when she faced voters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pressed on his position, Lurie said he \u003cem>did\u003c/em> vote to recall Boudin, adding that while he supports criminal justice reform “I think how [Boudin] went about [running the DA’s office] was kind of blowing up the system and not having a plan in place to fill that system.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On dealing with the city’s large unhoused population, an issue that has vexed San Francisco mayors since the 1980s, Lurie offered few specifics or new ideas, saying it was important to create more shelter beds and hold organizations funded by the city accountable for better results.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lurie will have plenty of time to sharpen his positions and ideas — the election is more than a year away — and present himself as someone willing to shake up the status quo.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m going to be able to look at these issues and solutions with a fresh perspective. And I will not be beholden to interests that are holding our city back,” Lurie said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11962480\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11962480\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/230926-DANIEL-LURIE-MD-04-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/230926-DANIEL-LURIE-MD-04-KQED.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/230926-DANIEL-LURIE-MD-04-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/230926-DANIEL-LURIE-MD-04-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/230926-DANIEL-LURIE-MD-04-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/230926-DANIEL-LURIE-MD-04-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Supporters of Daniel Lurie hold up signs as he announces his candidacy for Mayor of San Francisco at the Portrero Hill Neighborhood House in San Francisco on Sept. 26, 2023. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But Maggie Muir, who is managing Breed’s reelection campaign, says a political outsider like Lurie will have to convince voters he’s up to the challenge of managing a city like San Francisco with its $14 billion budget and byzantine bureaucracy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think the issue with a candidate like Daniel Lurie, who may have great intentions and be a real nice guy, is he essentially has no experience, or the level of experience needed to make progress on the challenges that are facing the city,” Muir said. “He’s never had to address and resolve issues at this level of seriousness and complexity.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Dr. Nadine Burke Harris, founder of the Bayview Child Health Center in San Francisco, noted that Lurie’s Tipping Point foundation was an early supporter of that effort and the Center for Youth Wellness, an organization she started later. Harris said Lurie not only helped fund programs addressing hardships the city faces, but also demanded accountability and results.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Harris said Lurie would be “a fantastic mayor.” \u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“He cares deeply, deeply, deeply and passionately about the city of San Francisco and its people and its future,” Harris said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Harris, a pediatrician and the former surgeon general of California, said Lurie has the skills to be an effective leader. “He’s smart. He knows how to get things done. He knows how to bring people together. And I think that he’s a good bridge,” Harris said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Harris added that previously she supported Breed and voted for her, but while she “respects and admires her tremendously on a personal level, I think San Francisco needs new leadership.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While Lurie has never before sought elected office, he’s been active for years in civic affairs. In 2013, he spearheaded the city’s successful effort to host the 50th Super Bowl. Then-Mayor Ed Lee then tapped him to chair the Bay Area Super Bowl 50 Host Committee, where he helped raise $13 million to invest in lower-income communities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lurie considered running for mayor in 2019 but ultimately chose not to because, he said, he knew London Breed and was inspired by her candidacy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I was really excited about the prospect of Mayor Breed. … to see a woman in charge, a woman leading our city. And I was very hopeful and that’s why I decided not to run,” Lurie said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He says running against Breed now isn’t personal but rather that “this is about our city and people.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Polls show city residents overwhelmingly believe San Francisco is “on the wrong track” and heading in the wrong direction, and Mayor Breed’s approval ratings are well below 50% — a warning sign for incumbents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Veteran campaign consultant Eric Jaye, who has worked on numerous mayoral campaigns, including ones for Gavin Newsom and Willie Brown, is skeptical of Lurie’s candidacy and message, calling him “a lovely person who means well,” but doubts he has “the steely resolve to take on the corrupt administration, the corrupt and failing cartel that runs our city and create actual change.”\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“He has no history of making hard decisions, of being willing to make enemies, of being willing to take on powerful forces from any corner,” Jaye said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In addition to Lurie, San Francisco Supervisor Ahsha Safaí, who like Breed is relatively moderate, has also filed to run. More than a dozen other less well-known candidates are running as well.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>San Francisco uses ranked choice voting to elect its mayor, and pollster Binder thinks that could help Lurie.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think that benefits him because he’s more likely to get the second and third choice votes from those who are picking someone else for first choice rather than the mayor,” Binder said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While Breed is currently unpopular with voters, her positions on many key issues — for example taking a tougher approach to open-air fentanyl dealing and homeless encampments and increasing police department staffing — are in line with a significant segment of the population.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The question she’ll have to answer is whether or not she can present a vision for the city and convince voters she can deliver on it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"info": "What kind of no sabo word is Hyphenación? For us, it’s about living within a hyphenation. Like being a third-gen Mexican-American from the Texas border now living that Bay Area Chicano life. Like Xorje! Each week we bring together a couple of hyphenated Latinos to talk all about personal life choices: family, careers, relationships, belonging … everything is on the table. ",
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"info": "Our flagship program, helmed by Kai Ryssdal, examines what the day in money delivered, through stories, conversations, newsworthy numbers and more. Updated Monday through Friday at about 3:30 p.m. PT.",
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"info": "The MindShift podcast explores the innovations in education that are shaping how kids learn. Hosts Ki Sung and Katrina Schwartz introduce listeners to educators, researchers, parents and students who are developing effective ways to improve how kids learn. We cover topics like how fed-up administrators are developing surprising tactics to deal with classroom disruptions; how listening to podcasts are helping kids develop reading skills; the consequences of overparenting; and why interdisciplinary learning can engage students on all ends of the traditional achievement spectrum. This podcast is part of the MindShift education site, a division of KQED News. KQED is an NPR/PBS member station based in San Francisco. You can also visit the MindShift website for episodes and supplemental blog posts or tweet us \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/MindShiftKQED\">@MindShiftKQED\u003c/a> or visit us at \u003ca href=\"/mindshift\">MindShift.KQED.org\u003c/a>",
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"info": "For decades, the process for how police police themselves has been inconsistent – if not opaque. In some states, like California, these proceedings were completely hidden. After a new police transparency law unsealed scores of internal affairs files, our reporters set out to examine these cases and the shadow world of police discipline. On Our Watch brings listeners into the rooms where officers are questioned and witnesses are interrogated to find out who this system is really protecting. Is it the officers, or the public they've sworn to serve?",
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"politicalbreakdown": {
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"title": "Political Breakdown",
"tagline": "Politics from a personal perspective",
"info": "Political Breakdown is a new series that explores the political intersection of California and the nation. Each week hosts Scott Shafer and Marisa Lagos are joined with a new special guest to unpack politics -- with personality — and offer an insider’s glimpse at how politics happens.",
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"possible": {
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"title": "Possible",
"info": "Possible is hosted by entrepreneur Reid Hoffman and writer Aria Finger. Together in Possible, Hoffman and Finger lead enlightening discussions about building a brighter collective future. The show features interviews with visionary guests like Trevor Noah, Sam Altman and Janette Sadik-Khan. Possible paints an optimistic portrait of the world we can create through science, policy, business, art and our shared humanity. It asks: What if everything goes right for once? How can we get there? Each episode also includes a short fiction story generated by advanced AI GPT-4, serving as a thought-provoking springboard to speculate how humanity could leverage technology for good.",
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"pri-the-world": {
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"title": "PRI's The World: Latest Edition",
"info": "Each weekday, host Marco Werman and his team of producers bring you the world's most interesting stories in an hour of radio that reminds us just how small our planet really is.",
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"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/The-World-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
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},
"radiolab": {
"id": "radiolab",
"title": "Radiolab",
"info": "A two-time Peabody Award-winner, Radiolab is an investigation told through sounds and stories, and centered around one big idea. In the Radiolab world, information sounds like music and science and culture collide. Hosted by Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich, the show is designed for listeners who demand skepticism, but appreciate wonder. WNYC Studios is the producer of other leading podcasts including Freakonomics Radio, Death, Sex & Money, On the Media and many more.",
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},
"reveal": {
"id": "reveal",
"title": "Reveal",
"info": "Created by The Center for Investigative Reporting and PRX, Reveal is public radios first one-hour weekly radio show and podcast dedicated to investigative reporting. Credible, fact based and without a partisan agenda, Reveal combines the power and artistry of driveway moment storytelling with data-rich reporting on critically important issues. The result is stories that inform and inspire, arming our listeners with information to right injustices, hold the powerful accountable and improve lives.Reveal is hosted by Al Letson and showcases the award-winning work of CIR and newsrooms large and small across the nation. In a radio and podcast market crowded with choices, Reveal focuses on important and often surprising stories that illuminate the world for our listeners.",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.revealnews.org/episodes/",
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},
"rightnowish": {
"id": "rightnowish",
"title": "Rightnowish",
"tagline": "Art is where you find it",
"info": "Rightnowish digs into life in the Bay Area right now… ish. Journalist Pendarvis Harshaw takes us to galleries painted on the sides of liquor stores in West Oakland. We'll dance in warehouses in the Bayview, make smoothies with kids in South Berkeley, and listen to classical music in a 1984 Cutlass Supreme in Richmond. Every week, Pen talks to movers and shakers about how the Bay Area shapes what they create, and how they shape the place we call home.",
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"order": 16
},
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